The story begins with living in a body that, from the moment of its creation, went against the grain. The cells decide to play their own game and reject symmetry. My body holds many such rebellious cells. The traces of living in this body are engraved in my memory, shaping who I am: traces of time, experience, and emotion. Each time this body is torn apart and rebuilt, I emerge anew. Whether as a woman, a wife, a mother, or an artist, I am constantly discovering its abilities.
Currently, I use my body as a matrix, examining how the tactile and performative act of printing a body can convey haptic qualities of skin contact with paper. Through this process of body printing and the exploration of haptic visuality, I engage in a deeper relationship with my body. These prints have acted like therapy, changing my relationship to my body, allowing me to feel it again—a body once hidden, numb, and even forgotten, under the weight of the social gaze and the tragic narratives often assigned to disabled bodies.
Zahra Hosseini is a disabled multidisciplinary Iranian artist based in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal. She is currently finishing her MFA in Print Media at Concordia University. Her practice spans printmaking, sculpture, bookmaking, and performance. Zahra holds a BA in Painting from the Faculty of Art and Architecture at Azad University, Tehran. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group shows in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal, Vancouver, and Tehran. She is the recipient of several awards, including the Glay Sperling Scholarship and the Concordia International Tuition Award of Excellence. In Spring 2026 she will present a solo exhibition at Tangled Art Gallery in Toronto.
