Rive Roshan

Exhibited at DESIGN MIAMI. 2023

Created exclusively for The Book of Love fundraiser for the Books & Books Literary Foundation, this limited-edition print features Rive Roshan’s original artwork celebrating Asir (Captive) by Forugh Farrokhzad, one of hundreds of beloved titles subject to recent book bans and challenges.

According to Golnar Roshan and Ruben de la Rive Box of Rive Roshan: “This print is dedicated to Forugh Farrokhzad (1935 – 1967), a female Iranian poet and filmmaker whose words were banned for over a decade and still remain controversial in Iran. Reminiscent of Persian calligraphic strokes, the artwork is based on our Freedom Vessels, a collection of sculptural objects, 3D printed in sand, made in tribute to the brave voices in the Woman, Life, Freedom movement. Women in Iran today continue to be censored, just as Farrokhzad was in her time. And just like Farrokhzad, they continue to bravely stand up and speak out for the right to exist as full, free human beings.” 

All proceeds benefit the Books & Books Literary Foundation’s urgent fight for the right to read. 

About Rive Roshan:

Rive Roshan is the artistic practice of Ruben de la Rive Box and Golnar Roshan. Driven by a deep interest in color, texture, and materiality, the studio creates to connect with people intuitively through exploring visual wonder as a means to emotional well-being. Through experimental processes the studio designs immersive spatial experiences, materials and objects that enrich lives and create memories that we treasure.

Rive Roshan’s work has been exhibited at Les Musée des Arts Décoratifs Paris, Old Selfridges Hotel London, Powerhouse Museum Sydney, Shanghai Museum of Glass, and Museum JAN, with a recent acquisition by National Gallery Victoria in Melbourne. Rive Roshan is represented by Rademakers Gallery in Amsterdam.

About Asir (Captive) by Forugh Farrokhzad:

Originally published in Iran in 1955, Asir (Captive) is the first collection of poems by Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad. Throughout her work, Farrokhzad was concerned with female desire, sensuality, and cultural restrictions on women. Following the 1979 revolution that overthrew Iran’s secular monarchy, Farrokhzad’s work was banned and then heavily censored for nearly a decade. Her untimely death in a car crash at the age of 32 was seen as a national tragedy and made the front pages of Tehran’s newspapers. In the afterword to Asir (Captive), Farrokhzad presciently wrote, “Perhaps because no woman before me took steps toward breaking the shackles binding women’s hands and feet, and because I am the first to do so, they have made such a controversy out of me.” She is seen as a symbol of artistic, personal, and sexual freedom because of her unprecedented work in articulating the inner emotional and physical intimacies of women in her culture.