Sissi Farassat was born in Tehran (Iran) in 1969. In 1978, she moved with her family to Vienna, where the artist is still living and working today. Farassat embroiders her photographic portraits with sequins, Swarovski crystals or threads. Her time intensive photo-needlework may seem anachronistic, but it touches and reflects upon important aspects regarding the perception of photographic images. Take the lighting control, for example: photographs screened off behind glass are exposed to multiple reflections and refractions while simultaneousy sealing off the surface and preventing any immediate eye-contact with the underlying image. In her sequined rugs, Sissi Farassat attaches additional highlights onto the photographs as well, but also inserts a physical and haptic quality into the visual field. With their sparkle and the iridescent colors, her images are reminiscent of opulent chambers but also of the glitter of disco and film revues - which in return seems to contradicts the apparent 'banality' or intimicy of her subject matters. Sissi Farassat often works with self-portraits, snapshots of family members and friends, but also with strangers or even found images. Thus the labor of embroidering a photograph, which can take days or weeks, is also an examination of a personal universe of images and relationships.