The Beloved, Unveiled


2023-24
10x48 cm(when open)
10x12 each page


-Under the leaf 3 Book Fair / Sept 7th & 8th 2024 / Suomenlinna, Finland







خانه
یار بی‌پرده از در و دیوار

در تَجَلّی است یا أُولِی‌ الْأَبْصار

شمع جویی و آفتاب، بلند

روز بَس روشن و تو در شبِ تار

گر زِ ظلْماتِ خود رَهی، بینی

همه عالَم، مَشارِقُ الْأَنوار

The beloved is unveiled through doors and walls, 
Manifest for those with discerning eyes. 
You seek a candle while the sun shines high, 
Day is very bright, yet you remain in the dark night. 
If you escape your own darkness, 
you will see The entire world is filled with radiant dawns.



This project organically extends from my MA Thesis, focusing on uncovering traces of marginal historical events and their
interconnections. During this search, I photographed partially-erased murals across various cities in Iran, including Kashan, Qazvin, Isfahan, Shiraz, and Tabriz. They are erased either by the passage of time and neglect/carelessness or by intentional propaganda. These photographs visually and metaphorically represent my field research and exploration of these half-erased marginal stories and their traces, which manifest in diverse materials such as voices, trees, walls, and micro-histories.

The photographs are printed using the Risograph technique on Munken 120g paper, with the largest prints measuring A2 (420x590 mm). As a spin-off from this series, I created small-sized zines, hand-printed and hand-bound using silk-screen and Risograph techniques.

The accompanying poem is by Hatif Isfahani, from his 18th-century collection "Tarji-band - There is only one, and nothing exists but that one," translated by the author.