Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington-based Iranian artist Mo H. Zareei’s new work Department Press Briefings features in our current exhibition Peal the Bells. In this artist talk, Zareei brings together the broad influences that have shaped his body of work: from growing up in a brutalist apartment complex in Tehran to collaborating with international icons of experimental music Loscil, Matmos, and Zimoun. The artist’s interdisciplinary practice is a direct outcome of his cross-field academic path: a PhD at Te Herenga Waka, a BFA at CalArts, and a BSc from Shahid Beheshti University of Tehran – one of the many academic targets of the ongoing American/Isr*eli war on his country. Posing such questions as, what does it mean to work within (or against) multiple institutional and political frameworks? Zareei will outline his constant grappling with questions of identity and authorship, as well as the material and political weight of his primary medium – i.e. sound.