Withheld comes from my experience of living as a woman in Iran, where gender and sexuality determine the rights a woman has and how she is allowed to live.

Jaden Smith

Architect

Jessica Kim

Photographer

With

held

In these paintings, female figures are held in place, distorted, elongated, bent, or covered. Their eyes are closed or lowered, as if surrendering to a situation they did not choose. Elements associated with femininity and beauty turn into forms of pressure and restraint. The body remains visible, but the freedom to inhabit it on one’s own terms is withheld. Through these figures, I wanted to show how living within these limits can gradually reshape a woman’s body from the inside out.