Brooklyn-based Tajik artist and author Sabina Khorramdel (Rosas) was discovered useless in her room at a luxurious wellness lodge in Water Mill, New York, on Monday, October 28. The 33-year-old was an obvious “sufferer of violence,” per a report from the Suffolk County Police Division.
The first suspect, Thomas Gannon, reportedly confessed to her homicide earlier than dying from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his Pennsylvania dwelling.
Born in Tajikistan and displaced throughout Central Asia all through her childhood on account of civil warfare, Khorramdel got here alone to New York Metropolis in 2009 at age 17 to pursue artwork. She finally accomplished a Movie and Media research diploma at Buy Faculty — a State College of New York (SUNY) — and launched into varied inventive instructions all through her profession. Along with sustaining an intuitive portray apply, she and her buddy Nazira Karimi co-produced a seven-channel video art work “Hafta” (2024) as a fee for the sixtieth Venice Biennale.
In 2023, Khorramdel and Karimi co-founded Ruyò Journal, a platform for artwork idea and significant discourse revolving round movie and visible arts throughout Central Asia. In accordance with her web site, the artist was additionally invested in sound artwork, meditation, and intuitive output knowledgeable by transcriptions of her environment.
“Pushed by her unbelievable vitality and imaginative and prescient, Sabina moved partitions in order that gardens might flourish, inviting everybody looking for gentle,” her colleagues at Ruyò Journal wrote in a press release asserting her demise shared on Instagram. “She shared all the things she had and supported all of us. “A lovely soul and a gifted artist, she left an impactful legacy within the arts of Central Asia. The world feels empty with out her.”
Many questions encompass the circumstances of Khorramdel’s demise because the post-mortem report has but to be printed. The first suspect, Gannon, a 56-year-old man from Wayne County, Pennsylvania, owned a tile firm and was reportedly financing Khorramdel’s artwork profession.
Studies point out that Gannon left the lodge the morning Khorramdel was discovered, having taken a taxi from the Lengthy Island resort to his Honesdale dwelling some 200 miles away. The coroner’s report outlines that he confessed to the homicide in a textual content message to a member of the family earlier than ending his personal life.
The character of Gannon and Khorramdel’s relationship stays unclear. Elizabeth Phillips, a SUNY Buy professor and mentor to Khorramdel, alleged to the New York Occasions that Gannon was the late artist’s boyfriend and benefactor, saying that they first grew to become concerned in 2021.
Phillips mentioned that Gannon and Khorramdel traveled collectively on varied retreats and excursions on his dime, and that he “confirmed an ardor and depth that was unnerving,” warning Khorramdel to be protected if she selected to finish the connection. In August, Gannon donated $1,000 to Khorramdel’s GoFundMe marketing campaign to boost funds to attend her first artist residency in Portugal meant to happen this month, captioning his donation with “You will have a tremendous present and shortly all of the world will see. I like you❤️”
Neither Karimi nor Phillips instantly responded to Hyperallergic’s inquiries, nor did Khorramdel’s colleagues at Ruyò Journal, who put out a secondary Instagram assertion decrying tabloid speculations and sensationalism across the homicide.
“We wish to make it clear that no member of the family or shut buddy of Sabina has spoken to any media retailers,” the publication’s assertion reads. “Any info circulating from these sources is unverified and shouldn’t be trusted.”