[dentifier] K2026-012

"Was I born a displaced person, or did this world make me one?" Shervin/e Sheikh Rezaei, 2022.

DISPLACE ME is a sculpture composed of two stacks of moving boxes, one of eight and one of two. The boxes bear painted traces of wear and remnants of tape, while large sticker letters together spell out the words DISPLACE ME. Because the letters are arranged vertically, the text must be read from top to bottom, unfolding only gradually. The construction also recalls the ruins of a marble column, appearing at once monumental and fragile, as though it might topple at any moment.

The repetition of the boxes, together with the uneven, brushy application of paint, evokes both bureaucracy and emptiness. For Sheikh Rezaei, this hollowness speaks to experiences of displacement, and to the question of how far identity is shaped by the world into which one is born. Displacement thus appears not only as loss, but as an ongoing negotiation of space, belonging and power. Other phrases from the series X ,ME include INHALE ME, PAIN ME, EXPOSE ME and INDICT ME. Are they commands, pleas or threats?

X ,ME originated in December 2023, a period marked by a steady stream of violent political imagery in the media. For Sheikh Rezaei, it was also a moment of transition, coinciding with a new move and a temporary home. The boxes conjure a state of continual transit.