Ballin, D., 2026.

Letter to Lily

ABSTRACT: LETTER TO LILY, Deborah Ballin 20025
Letter to Lily is a twenty-one-page personal essay by Ballin in the artist book Absolute Beginners that will accompany the exhibition Absolute Beginners by British Iranian artist Farhad Ahrarnia and American Iranian Photographer and Artist Lili Irarvani at Aaron Gallery, Tehran, Iran on 13th Feb 2026.

Letter to Lily investigates Lili Iravani's personal archives using multiple creative methodologies (oral testimony, autofiction, co -creation, creative non-fiction) alongside Lilli's archive of photographs, paintings, and memorabilia. Lill's archive documents her life, including her time as an architect in 1960's Tehran, followed by her experience as an activist, and photographer in Washington DC in the 1970's and 80's and her later work as a diplomatic photographer at The White House in the 1990's and early 2000's. The research asks how utilising multiple creative methods alongside personal archival materials can amplify untold historical stories of Iranian women artists and highlight complex and timely themes of Iranian women's rights, feminism, fashion, activism, diaspora, and identity.

Letter to Lily was developed with Ahrarnia and Iravani using a novel co-creative iterative methodology. Oral testimony was gathered by Ballin from Ahrarnia retelling conversations he had, had with Iravani about her work and life over many years and reflecting on materials from Iravani's archive curated by Ahrarnia. Ballin then drew on Ahrarnia's testimony to iteratively retell Iravani's story back to her in the form of a letter interweaving Ahrarnia's oral testimony with Balin's responsive autofiction. This methodology sought to enlarge Iravani's and Ballin's narratives creating 'a container' (Le Guin, 1986) for more than one woman's story. The practice-based research methodology sought to prompt questions about intersubjectivity, positionality, truth and veracity when writing in response to an(others) personal archival materials. Throughout the reflexive process the co-creators were 'observing and analysing themselves as they engage in the act of creation,' (Skains 2018, 84) to illuminate and explore 'how gaps and indistinctness' (may) 'allow for things to be known differently through imaginative, participatory, connective encounters" (Ravetz, 2018)