This Side | water | That Side is a visual translation of an idiomatic expression that speaks to the complex and often antagonistic relationship of home and diaspora populations divided by a body of water.

Using drywall stencils, the first two letters of the Farsi (Persian) alphabet are poured in porcelain slip directly onto the floors of the gallery. They follow the aesthetic rules of Nastaliq calligraphy where the ideal length of characters is prescribed by the shape and number of rectangular periods. 

The two letters A and B together create the word “Aab” water, as in a river bisecting the space into two arbitrary sides. This side and that side. Here language and water (river) become border and barrier, eroded then erased through the passage of time and transgressive crossings. Gallery visitors choose to stay on one side or the other, jump over the river, or walk through the threshold of the divisions of place, time and language, carrying the residue of river soil on their soles.