Shirazeh Houshiary (born in Iran) left her native country in 1973. She attended Chelsea School of Art, London (1976–9) and was a Cardiff College of Art junior fellow at (1979–80). She was identified with other young sculptors of her generation such as Richard Deacon and Anish Kapoor, but her work was distinct from theirs in the strong Persian influence which it displayed, though sharing with Kapoor a spiritual concern. Her ideology draws on Sufi mystical doctrine and Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, a Persian mystic and poet from the 13th century. She was a nominee for the 1994 Turner Prize. In 2008, the St Martin-in-the-Fields Church in London unveiled a commission by Shirazeh Houshiary and Pip Horne for the East Window. Houshiary's work is included in numerous public and private collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York and The Tate Collection, London. In 2005, Creative Time commissioned Houshiary and Pip Horne for their Creative Time Art on the Plaza series where the monumental Breath tower was exhibited in New York City. Another example of this work was also included in Feri Daftari's exhibition Without Boundary: Seventeen Ways of Looking at the Museum of Modern Art in 2006