Chink of Light
Díla focus : literary expression, creative collaboration, editorial awareness
Chink of Light is a poetry book composed by four young refugee women Karima, Mahmonir, Adele and Ely, expressing their experiences travelling from Iran through the mountains of Turkey, the Mediterranean Sea, Moria camp on Lesvos, and the city of Athens. Through Díla it will appear in two iterations: the first is the handmade artists’ book as the centrepoint of an exhibition also featuring video portraits and Persian poetry audio; and the second is a paperback poetry publication for wider distribution.
The one-off artists’ book is bound in a cloth cover that uses traditional Afghan embroidery to depict an olive branch. The pages contain poems in Farsi with English translations, calligraphed in ink, alongside phone photos taken on their journey, accompanied by pressed foliage collected from around the Acropolis and Philopappou Hill. The first iteration of the exhibition took place in July 2021 at the Dimitris Pikionis pavilion on Philopappou with the kind permission of the Greek Ministry of Culture.
Exhibition iterations in Brussels (2024) and Berlin (2025) will follow. The poetry paperback will feature digitised versions of handmade elements from the artists’ book. This project is driven by Karima who is working towards becoming an author, currently under the mentorship of award-winning Iranian writer-in-exile Sana Nassari. It was developed with writer and literary educator Homan Yousofi via his creative writing workshops; he continues to co-create Chink of Light through translations and literary guidance.
Ely, Karima, Mahmonir and Adele livestreaming a poetry reading from Athens to the London Poetry Society
A poem by Ely calligraphed in the Chink of Light handmade book photographed by Norah Dineen
Chink of Light exhibition signage and chapbook cover design by Pressure
Video portrait of Karima in the Chink of Light exhibition photographed by Norah Dineen
The handmade book on display in the Chink of Light exhibition photographed by Norah Dineen