After Examining The Logbook, The Doctors Assume they Are Dealing With The Plague, 2019
Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris, France
A ship at sea has been the metaphor of destiny, the uncertainty of human life and a core depiction of faith since medieval times in Iran and the surrounding region. Water, a sacred element, represents clarity and purification.
In the tradition of the Persian painting it is rendered in silver paint. However, over the years silver turns into black through oxidation. The silverish sea turns into dark water. The Persian miniatures that I used for this project are all from 16th and 17th century depictions of ships sailing at sea. A continuation of my Miniatures series, I removed human figures from the paintings, and the results are ghost ships sailing on dark water. These works are a metaphor for the refugees who escaped from the Middle East crisis and put their destiny
in the hands of traffickers and God. Many of them had never see the shores of their intended new homes and were instead lost in dark waters, having the same fate as the silver in the paintings. The empty ships symbolise refugees who have lost their souls and dignity in this ordeal. Lighthouse, in contrast to the ships, represents engineering, maths and science. They suggest guidance and navigation, in contrast with the uncertainty of life and fate. The lighthouses’ architecture combines aspects of East European Brutalism with elements taken from drawings and sketches of the Pharos of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of
the Ancient World. The exhibition title was inspired by the plot of Nosferatu (A Symphony of Horror) directed by F.W. Murnau (1922).