Interview about The Bird from Paradise Wooden Sculpture, winner of the A' Cultural Heritage and Culture Industry Design Award 2019
The bird from Paradise is a figurative design of a Peacock and tried to keep its form unlike the geometric limitation for practising different type of artworks together. To make this happen, I put together 7 traditional Iranian arts like Muqarnas, Marquetry (Moaraq), Munabat, etc. among which specific attention was paid to Muqarnas by inventing a new method called 'Leveled Muqarnas'. Muqarnas is on its way to extinction because of its specific use for religious architectural designs and I hope this method help to revive it.
View detailed images, specifications, and award details on A' Design Award & Competition website.
View Design DetailsMuqarnas technique of leveling gives us the opportunity to create asymmetric forms, different from regular forms, due to the layering of moqrans components on the so-called levels 'footing' and 'stepping'. For this reason, it creates the necessary ground for artists to create different combinations from the previous traditional modes. This new horizon can lead to the formation of completely new methods, approaches and experiences that will bring the thought and art of Muqarnas into a new era of its history.
In traditional Iranian arts, there is an important concept called 'enchantment of creating'. It refers to the invisible energy that is transmitted to the audience from works of handicrafts, especially wooden works and Persian carpets, and gives a sense of life and constancy to a work. This feature makes the audience feel that the work is growing and evolving and that they wants to interact with it, make changes in it in their mind or even create a similar work themselves. Enchantment, in fact, is the extension of the work's life in the audience's imagination and creativity. The coexistence of different types of traditional arts, according to the concept of enchantment, can create a complex effect and be manifested a single work.
It is said and experienced through history that human always feels weaker than the stronger state he is actually able to experience. Therefore, throughout the history of civilization, we have come to this conclusion that we always need a driving factor to dare to step beyond the safe edge of knowledge, and this factor is our 'belief'. In fact, these are beliefs that help us strive for something that may not have a result, and it is generally this effort that expands the circle of human civilization. Among the interesting and evocative belief systems, there are religious beliefs that are mixed with mythical and provocative illusions of reality and strongly arouse the imagination of artists. The character of Abraham and the religious legends related to him are always inspiring and exciting for me.
In order to reach a better understanding of what I want to explain, I suggest seeing my other work titled:A Thousand and One Night that won the A' Design Award in 2022 in the handicrafts section. In fact, in that project, I have prepared a table of wood colors that complement each other. This table provides an identification code for colors that helps to see the hue and essence of each color better. For example, the yellow color of boxwood dramatically makes the brown theme of jujube appear red. This is while jujube on its own and/or with other colors of wood appears as a shade of brown.
The shells of the Persian Gulf are the result of a biological process on the ocean floor, sediments that are formed over many years in one of the wildest and most pristine ecosystems in the world. The iridescence and curious depth of this material after the final polishing is always inspiring to me and I always feel as if something is staring back at me in that unreachable depth. For the cause of this feeling, I decided to make the eyes of The Bird from Paradise based on this personal experience and create a similar experience for the audience.
During the years that I have lived in the atmosphere of Iranian arts, I have realized that the concept of Iranian art is based on 'internalization' through a kind of self-cultivation and using cultural customs. It means that the Iranian artist must first achieve a kind of comparative power through 'theoretical exercise' by watching a great deal of other people's works, so that they can take the next step, which is 'practical exercise'. At this step, the artist chooses the best pattern, motif or model by using the comparative value they have formed in their mind and then repeat and imitate it. After that, using these achievements, they instinctively take the third step, which is the 'imagination exercise' step. The Bird from Paradise is a manifestation of the same process: watching the many Muqarnas in Iranian architecture, trying to understand and reconstruct them, and then discovering the geometric secrets and completely mastering transforming them based on my own imagination.
In the course of my research and experiences, I realized that Muqarnas is actually the volume form of two-dimensional geometric patterns. Therefore, in the part of the crown, I decided to implement this concept objectively, the movement of the straight lines that creates 'knot' motifs, then the breaking of the area of the knots that creates the levels, and finally the movement of the levels in the dimension of height so that it can lead to the headquarters of Muqarnas. In fact, in this part of the sculpture, the audience can observe and understand the different course of the point, line, surface and form in Muqarnas.
The most important feature of The Bird from Paradise could be its compound effect through the 'enchantment of creating', that is, this effect extends well in the audience's mind and stimulates their imagination. I have received interesting reactions from the audience, such as:I wish I had made it.I wish I could have it.I want to make something like that.I think it would be better if it was made this way.This impact from The Bird from Paradise during years has inspired many people to learn the different arts used in this work, and this is very pleasant to me.
This prestigious award made The Bird from Paradise better known and distinguished. The special attention that this award created for The Bird from Paradise as a leading work internationally recognized has been the motivation of many people who are interested in traditional Iranian arts, especially wooden arts since they started to realize that this art can be a way to participate in the international arena and prestigious events.
I believe that handicrafts are the first purposeful activity of humans to improve their lifestyle, An activity that made humans stand out from other creatures, make tools and take a different approach in facing challenges of life next to their natural environment. Handicrafts inspired human to try to understand and describe his surroundings and then art was born. Handicrafts motivated human to try to make more use of natural laws and then the industrial revolution took place. And today handicrafts as a 'identity-founded discourse' can once again come to the aid of mankind and in the age of artificial intelligence and identity crisis, by providing the human with the necessary platform for 'creating experience' help them reach the sense of security, growth and usefulness.
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