This week we remember Sabina Khorramdel, an emerging talent working in new media, sound compositions and performances that were often magical, meditative and abstract. We’re sorry to say Sabina passed away just days ago, on Oct. 28, at the age of 33, the result of a senseless violent act. Sabina was originally from Tajikistan.
I met Sabina about four years ago, soon after she graduated from the world-class arts programs at the State University of New York at Purchase. She was introduced to me by Liz Phillips, her professor at Purchase and my colleague and collaborator. Liz is a pioneer in the field of interactive sound sculpture.
Liz and Sabina were developing software and code that could trigger sound patterns and shifts based on movement. In 2021, I staged a video installation with live sound and a dance performance called “Emerge,” which was shown at Diversity Plaza in Jackson Heights and dedicated to those lost in the pandemic, our essential workers, and the need for climate awareness. Sabina scored the piece in real-time with a program she designed. During the performance, she manipulated sound activated by dancer Parijat Desai’s movements.
Liz had recently said of Sabina: “Sabina is an emerging artist with great style, intelligence and creative energy. She is a mature young artist with a strong cultural and historical sensibility and many stories to share. As my assistant at school, in the studio and during installations, she was reliable and a terrific addition to the team. She has found collaborators around the world and connects people and threads that run through cultures and can heal.”
I was moved to hear that Epicenter NYC inspired Sabina to co-found the Ruyò Journal, an artist-run platform dedicated to fostering critical discourse in the arts in Central Asia.
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