By Tina Zhu
“I feel every minute of freedom here or in Spain,” said Golsana Heshmati, a lighting designer born and raised in Tehran, Iran.
Golsana Heshmati recently moved from Spain to Berkeley to join her boyfriend and family in the United States and is already starting to make her mark on the community. In the last few weeks, she has set up three ephemeral light installations in windows in different places in Berkeley.
“I love street art because anyone can start doing it,” she said. “There are no exceptions to who interacts with it, and your studio is as large as a city.”
For the past four years, Heshmati lived in Spain, studying and working in architectural lighting design.
Having lived in Iran for 18 years prior to that, she says her upbringing in Iran has profoundly shaped and impacted her art.
“[In Tehran], no one can really express themselves in this way. In my generation, anyone who can will leave because [Iran] is so closed,” she said. “But I do wish to go back and do installations.”
For now, she will continue creating urban installations in Berkeley and plans to complete at least one each week. She can’t predict where her next installation will be, since spontaneity is part of her artistic process.
“There is lots of improvising in street art projects and some of the ideas come up during the installations.”
Heshmati looks forward to getting assistance for her projects. Her work can be seen on her website, and she can be contacted at golsana_heshmati@yahoo.com.
