Voices of Feathers, Voices of Daggers, Art Mur, Montreal, 2025

From graffiti and stickers on walls to traffic signs and fragmented body forms in urban settings, “Voices of Feathers, Voices of Daggers” brings together paintings by Iranian-born Vancouver-based visual artist Mohadeseh Movahed. Movahed explores the complex dynamics of a polarized society in these works, where layers of intersections, encounters and conflicts constantly arise. Her paintings reimagine public and private spaces as sites where contrasting qualities and dualities such as power and resistance, presence and erasure, hopes and despair collide.

Walls in these paintings emerge as an index of control, imposing boundaries that restrict and define space. Yet, wall writings and street art continuously oppose these structures, transforming them into platforms for defiance and self-expression. Figures and shadows, with their fragile yet persistent presence in Movahed’s paintings, embody the voices of feathers, disrupting the dominance of the voices of daggers.