Laleh Mehran and Christopher Coleman

Laleh Mehran and Chris Coleman pursued a collaborative project for the Land Line residency, focusing on the natural world’s significance throughout history and across cultures. Their project resulted in a design inspired by carpets from Iran. The design combines plants from West Virginia (Coleman’s native home), Iran (Mehran’s native home) and Colorado (their current home), reflecting on the long history of migration of both people and plants. Combining old and new technologies, this work was created using 3-D recreations, photogrammetry, photography and lidar scanning, weaving a complex story of relationships and understanding.

About the Artists

Laleh Mehran was born in Iran and relocated to the U.S. at the start of the Iranian Islamic Revolution. She creates elaborate environments in digital and physical spaces focused on complex intersections between politics, religion and science. Mehran received her MFA from Carnegie Mellon University and has exhibited across North America and countries including Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, U.A.E., Bahrain, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Taiwan and China. She is a professor and the director of emergent digital practices at the University of Denver. 

Chris Coleman was born in West Virginia and received his MFA from SUNY Buffalo in New York. His work includes creative coding, videos, sculptures and interactive installations. Coleman has exhibited in more than 20 countries including Brazil, Argentina, Canada, Finland, the U.A.E., Germany, France, China, Latvia and across North America. He currently resides in Denver, Colorado, and is a professor and the graduate director of emergent digital practices at the University of Denver. 

Joelle Cicak

Joelle Cicak used her Land Line residency to research the entanglements that occur within the steppe biomes represented at Denver Botanic Gardens. Exploring the delicate connections between plants and animals, Cicak’s work captures how these interactions build a foundation upon which we all may thrive. Her research at the Gardens aided the creation of ceramic sculpture displaying the interchange of life within ecosystems, celebrating the intricate interactions between different plant species and the ways in which they combine to wondrous ends.   

About the Artist

Joelle Cicak grew up against a stretch of forest in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where she learned at a young age the intricacies that exist between humans and the environment. Her undergraduate education at Dickinson College focused on art practices and classical studies. Because of this, she often uses mythology to aid her thoughts on nature, memory and the connection between past and present, personal and public. She received her MFA in ceramics at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She focuses deeply on both her relationship with the natural world, as well as the cultural ideas that both bind us to and separate us from it.