Gelare Khoshgozaran is an interdisciplinary artist and writer working across video-installation, performance and writing. Born and raised in Tehran and living in Los Angeles, she envisions the city as an imaginary space between asylum as 'the protection granted to a political refugee' and 'a mental institution.' Her work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions at the Queens Museum of Art, Museo Ex-Teresa Arte Actual, Malmö Konsthall, LAXART, Human Resources, and Interstate Projects, among others. Gelare was the recipient of a 2017 Art Matters Fellowship, and the 2015 Creative Capital | Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant as co-founding editor of contemptorary.org. Her work is featured in the Hammer Museum Made in LA Biennial 2018.

​

mm/dd/yyyy

digital video, color, no sound, 13':20" | 2015

​

Using text from the U.S. immigration forms, i-589 Application for Asylum and i-485 Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, mm/dd/yyyy questions the formation of the alien subject in the U.S. through asylum and immigration procedures. What is expected to "swear to, under perjury of law" in the literature of these forms? What are the criteria for eligibility, authenticity and legibility of a prospective U.S. citizen; and how do these questions reflect on those who have gained citizenship by birth, as opposed to a naturalization process?