Arch of Shiraz

By Maral Akbarianvaryan

🇺🇸 UNITED STATES

CategoryArt And Installation Light

Date of CompletionMay 11, 2025

Location of ProjectDetroit, Michigan

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Lighting Performance & Usage Context

Installation

Project Description

Arch of Shiraz is a contextual art installation inspired by a historic monument in Shiraz that was threatened by the 2019 flood. It reflects on the loss of cultural heritage and links it to industrial waste, climate change, and destructive rainfall. Visitors interact by twisting used water bottles into the arch surface and filling them creatively, turning everyday waste into a symbolic material for rebuilding. This creates a paradox: the same industrial culture that damages history becomes part of its repair. Visually, the work reinterprets the light of Nasir al-Mulk Mosque, as light passes through the bottles and casts colorful, poetic patterns onto the ground. Built with replaceable clay elements around a steel structure, the installation combines sustainable material use, technical stability, strong visual impact, and cultural relevance.

Project Leader

Maral Akbarianvaryan

Studio / Company Name

Maral AKbarianvaryan

Profile

Maral Akbarianvaryan is a product designer and user researcher developing healing-focused solutions grounded in human relationships and trauma-informed design. Her work explores how digital and physical products and public space can support emotional safety, regulation, agency, and connection through research, prototyping, and human-centered methods.

Maral AKbarianvaryan