Reflection

How can images expand or alter the meaning of text? The combination of letters and the use of their visual characteristics aim to communicate by transforming verbal concepts into flat or dimensional forms. This genre, known as “calligraphy installation” in contemporary art, represents a synergy between text and environment. The creation of the “Reflection Collection” within this global genre has deep roots in the history of Iranian art, tracing back to a movement known as “animated calligraphy,” which took shape in various art forms such as architectural inscriptions and ceramics. Its continuation in later periods evokes a type of naive art found in traditional and folk illustrations, which caught the attention of the founders of the Saqqakhaneh movement in the 1960s. This method, where letters transform into figures resembling humans or quasi-humans, gained a special place at the height of Iranian modernism.

This genre has now, through the passage of history and the experimental approach of Mehdi Saeedi, taken a step further. It transforms the graphic atmosphere in the way words are perceived and disrupts their narrative order, addressing the spatial dimension of image and text through a combination of mirrors and canvas. The use of mirrors and the alteration of their sizes disrupt and leave incomplete the perfect reflection and symmetry of faces. This reveals deeper layers of individual and social identities, creating contradictory and multi-polar characters. Their display, through “material contrast,” “angle contrast,” “texture contrast,” and “color contrast,” has a profound impact.

Symmetrical forms, contrary to common tradition, lead to the breakdown of balance in the viewer’s perspective, potentially raising philosophical questions about reality, illusion, time, and space. Viewers may reflect on their emotions and thoughts, and this boundlessness, without editing, intervenes in their personal characteristics in this dual-sided reflection. The audience becomes part of the artwork, and in this process, an interaction involving history, society, identity, and self-awareness is established.

Dr. Shima Fahima
Summer 2024