Annahita Brooks
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Born in London and living in Switzerland, Annahita Brooks speaks to her heritage, identifying as Polish and Iranian. Honouring the knowledge from her grandfather, this project is the coming together of culture and paying homage to embracing the past as a way of preserving the future.

Inspired by medieval monasticism and early renaissance Orthodox Church furnishings, her methodology of the handmade integrates embroidery as a way of presenting her archive of knowledge through her formal training, artist residences, travel, and relationships with people. This process is informed by a continuous exploration of iconography and materials that are site-specific, constantly revisiting past projects to bring together research and promoting the practice of doing things you have to do by yourself.

Annahita Brooks: A Fusion of Polish and Persian Heritage in Contemporary Art

London-born and Swiss-based artist Annahita Brooks is known for her research-driven art that explores her Polish and Persian heritage. Through lens-based media, installation art, and site-specific research, Annahita creates works that weave visual mediums, spatial installations, and cultural investigations.

Currently an MA student in Christianity and the Arts at King’s College London, Annahita holds MFAs from the University of Edinburgh and the University of Oxford and a BFA from Zürich University of the Arts. Her work prominently features analog photography documenting religious rituals and familial investigations. Her current projects investigate altarpieces, funerary rituals, and the lives of medieval anchorites, enriched by her residency in Georgia studying sacrificial rituals in the Caucasus Mountains.

Influenced by Polish modernism and Catholic kitsch, Annahita addresses themes of withdrawal and hermit lifestyles, incorporating found objects, fabric, plastic pearls, beads, and gems into her installations. Her quest to understand her Persian heritage drives her use of mixed media to trace similarities with her biological father, while her family's history influences her interest in Polish political underground movements.

Annahita co-founded and co-curates the IRMA Republic for Social Anthropology in Bern and serves as an assistant curator at Marks Blond Project R.f.S.A. in Zürich. The Times Scotland has reviewed her work twice and is often featured in Kultur Zug magazine. She was recognized as one of the "99 Future Blue-Chip Artists to Watch Out For" by Artsted, London. Annahita has exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy, Arte Padova Art Fair, and Zuger Kunst Nacht, and her works have been showcased in Greece, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, England, Scotland, Slovenia, Georgia, and Moldova.

Funded through the Cultural Department of the City of Zug, Switzerland.