On May 16, 2026, Asia Contemporary Art Forum (ACAF) presented Talking Peers: Tea as Vessel, a participatory activation curated by Leeza Ahmady as part of Bahar Behbahani's public installation Damask Rose: A Gathering, commissioned by Governors Island.​

​

Set within Behbahani's Persian garden-inspired environment, the activation brought together artists from ACAF's diasporic network to explore tea as a living vessel—one that holds personal histories, diasporic experiences, and shared encounters. Through stories, performances, subtle rituals, and tea shared from a collective assemblage of thermoses and teacups, participants cultivated presence and connection, revealing that everyday tea rituals—whether shaped by inherited traditions or contemporary habits—are creative acts through which hospitality, cultural memory, love, and belonging are continually renewed.​

​

The session opened with ACAF curator Leeza Ahmady offering a grounding meditation to attune participants, followed by Roya Ghiasy, who extended the sensorial field through rose water, transforming participants’ bodies into carriers of scent and memory. Zolaykha Sherzad restitched a deconstructed ikat jacket while sharing glimpses from her Kabul atelier, situating tea within everyday networks of craftsmanship, hospitality, and belonging. Dara Hartley shared an embodied narrative rooted in Mongolian tea traditions through 3D-printed teacups of Suutei Tsai and a handmade zine, linking ritual, travel, and memory. Emilio Rojas drew from Mexican traditions of limpia (spiritual cleansing), inviting participants to locate the emotional and embodied weight of migration within their own bodies and release it by pouring herbal tea onto the corresponding place on the artist’s dress—an intimate gesture that became both an individual and collective act of letting go. 

 

See Digital Book HERE for curatorial narrative, photos and more.