My Heart is Tight For You
Theaterworks
Hartford
October 8, 2025
Part of enjoying art is allowing oneself to engage with the “spirit” of an event.
In movies and television, we call it “suspension of disbelief” – the acknowledgement that many of the things we see on screen range from unlikely to outright impossible, yet we allow ourselves to go along for the ride by participating in the fantasy of the show.
Visual art exhibits don’t necessarily require suspension of disbelief, but there is usually an artist ethos that permeates an exhibit. The exhibit "My Heart is Tight For You,"featuring artwork by Mahsa Attaran at Theaterworks in Hartford, asks its viewers to delve into the discomfort of being lost in translation.
Attaran, who is Persian, said that her exhibit is about her experience as an Iranian woman. She wants to educate people about her country, using some of the Persian elements that have been part of her life. Her artwork also challenges contemporary Iranian government and patriarchy.
Her critiques are centered in love for her heritage. It suffuses her different works. Attaran in particular is in love with the Persian language, and the poetry of how words are used to express grandiose affection and emotion. Persian is found in several of her works on display, without translation.
That is the key element of Attaran’s exhibit. There are certain ideas and emotions that simply don’t transfer when Persian is translated to English, and even when there is close enough similar meaning, there are other elements that are lost: the sound of Persian, the look of its calligraphy, the memories connected to certain words.
“My husband is American, and so I have to speak English even at home,” she said. “But sometimes I want to say something, but I don't have any words for that. I don't even know how to describe it because there are so many feelings you can explain in your own language, but in another language, you have to think about it.”
One of the most striking pieces of the exhibit is a mirror constructed out of triangles of various shapes and sizes. Attaran said that she was inspired by Persian mirror art that appears in Persian architecture. She put her own twist on it though, altering the typically symmetrical nature of the triangles to represent the various distances between her and her parents, her and her brothers, and her brothers and parents at various points in their lives. On the mirror itself are several Persian words.
My favorite piece of the exhibition was a display of several herbs and spices neatly arranged on a shelf. Behind each little jar was a label written in Persian. I don’t think I’ve ever been to an exhibit that also engaged my sense of smell. The spice on the far right was ground into earthy colored flakes from the nuts (I think?) in the jar. The smell was spicy, but not overpowering, and I found my mouth watering at the thought of sprinkling some of it on my dinner.
Throughout the exhibit, I found myself wanting to ask a question: what does this mean? What do those words say? What kind of spice is this? And I knew that Attaran would be more than accommodating in explaining all of those things. But the whole point of the exhibit is how translation is inadequate to explain the beauty of life in Persia.
So instead, I tried to feel what the words were saying. Language is a vehicle for emotion, and I tried to experience the feelings that went into each work, and at that point the words transformed from carriers of meaning into expressions of art themselves, highlights that told me exactly what they mean, even though I couldn’t read them. They’re a love letter to family, friends, and a culture.
“I found the care and the love that I have for my country and for the people, and I’m showing that love and care with some criticism,” she said. “All of this shows that I absolutely love my country and I want it to become a better place for everyone.”
NEXT
My Heart is Tight For You continues at Theaterworks through November 2.
Jamil goes to a lecture to learn about growing food.
