In January 2019 Joyce was an artist-in-residence at the Aria Residency in Tehran, Iran. During her stay at the Aria Residency she made five canvases with velvet, replicas of photos she took on the streets of Tehran.
Back home in The Netherlands, she continued to collaborate with Iranian female artists and women who she had met during her stay in Tehran. She wanted to tell those stories that they could not easily share at home and portray them in an anonymous way at a moment where they could truly feel free and be themselves without having to worry about any laws that they could break by simply being themselves.
She asked them to send her photos of situations where they felt very happy but at the same time would not be able to publicly share those moments or photos because of all the laws on how Iranian women should behave or dress. Joyce transformed those photos into velvet tapestries, to honour the Iranian women and their stories.
The contrasts in the work are not made by different colours but just the direction o the nap of the velvet tat the artist uses. And the works change depending on the angle of the viewer towards the fabric.