Leily Moghtader Mojdehi (b. England, 1999) is an Iranian, South-East Asian and British artist living and working in London. In 2021, Mojdehi graduated from Goldsmiths University with a BA in Fine Art. Over the course of her bachelor’s degree, Mojdehi learned to translate her personal narratives articulately into her multi-dimensional mixed media artworks. By re-imagining and re-interpreting this language, she creates “mise en scene compositions and objects from which stories can be unfolded, to explore [her] transcultural identity and liminal state of being.”. Mojdehi’s outcomes dance between the real and the representational in heavily layered colourful collage compositions.
Mojdehi is a member of the artist collective Floor Five, who are currently in a one-year residency at the Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art. Leily and a handful of her friends formed the collective when studying, they joined force to support each other through the challenges of being a student during a global pandemic. With the importance of community more apparent then ever, the collective assembled to talk about their shared feelings of isolation, in their institution of study. Floor Five gather to draw on the everyday experiences of people of colour and attempt to provide a state of catharsis, already established between the members, through holding workshops and talks.
Following her Fine Art degree show, ‘Sitting Still’, at Goldsmiths last year, Mojdehi took part in various other group exhibitions including ‘The Politics of Physicality’ at ACal Arts Festival in London.
LEILY MOJDEHI
NO FORK NEEDED
FEBRUARY 2022
‘No Fork Needed’ is an exhibition of artworks by London based artist, Leily Moghtader Mojdehi. The artist welcomes her audience home to her domestic mixed media collages that exude warmth and bring the comfort that comes from casual snacking. Food evokes feelings of familiarity, and knowing, and is arguably the easiest way to connect to a culture.
Mojdehi explores her transcultural identity through artmaking, traversing diverse genres of representation including but not limited to, quilting, photographic collage, sculpture, crochet, and embroidery. Community and dialogue are intrinsic and necessary to Mojdehi’s practice, and she discovered this during her time at Goldsmiths university.
Consequently, Mojdehi and several of her friends formed the artist collective ‘Floor Five.’ The group gathers to discuss their shared experiences as students of colour, and to support each other through their creative practices.