 Dots
Paintings
Farrokh Shayesteh
October 14, 2004
iranian.com
Every living culture uses art as a vehicle for expressing
the collective experience of its members; it is a sociocultural
phenomenon. Art is universal only in the sense that every human
society, no matter how small, has it. However, the real understanding
of art and its emotional effect is possible within a cultural framework.
Living cultures and their art mirror each other, and so the best
in them is broadcast. Waves reflecting waves and on so many different
shores >>> Paintings
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Traditional eastern art has a strong influence on my work. My earliest
training was under Persian masters with whom I worked for a number
of years. A certain kind of Persian miniature, which was a dominant
force in the development of my work, was initiated during the
19th century in Shiraz, my own city of birth and childhood.
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The Balinese say, "We have no art, everything we do is
art." The
Persian miniature is the microcosmic expression of the greater
human art form. This is also true of its traditional mode of
production, a team consisting of a master ostad and his disciples
work up to
several weeks on a single piece. In truth they are humble artisans,
for their lives, collectively and individually are greater
works than their art. Like other workers they come together daily in
their almost ritual reintegration of their mutual joys and
sorrows. They find and stir each other to wakefulness by the nuances of
detail expressed in the miniature, knowing that only they are
awake who can walk and talk in the same dream vision, just as
the
Native
American sand paintings are meant to evoke a unified tribal
vision.
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In the beginning, I found the use of Persian motifs enjoyable,
even necessary. Now, they merely appear when they want to.
Additionally, throughout maturity, certain traditional mode
of painting has
remained; while others have been discarded or transformed.
Distinct is my
use of light, which sometimes eats things, absorbs them.
Where does the light come from? It always comes from inside, but
its reflection is outside.
"Break the heart of any atom and in its center
its own sun you'll see." (H.S. -circa 1300)
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You may search until doomsday to find even a trace of shadow
in a Persian miniature. Why are there no shadows? Consider the enigmatic
old Persian sufi saying: "He become so thin even his shadow
deserted him". So light is information, and I am neither
ostad, nor a mischievous team of disciples. My shadow has deserted
me.
I am an other.
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The process is a slow formation of the idea: a three dimensional
network of dots, the transparency of watercolor allowing the
very bottom layers of dots to blend with the upper layers. I
am fascinated
by dots. Rain drops. The sands of deserts or ocean shores.
Stars. Dust. Atoms and molecules. From a distance people are
moving spots.
Even, or especially, the age of electronic consciousness is made
of dots. So we artisans, in praxis and practice, work until all
and every species of dust and dots express their hidden luminosity.
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 As to scale. While initially the
small scale of my work was a matter of tradition, training, habit, and convenience,
it later
became
clear that the provocative intimacy inherent in miniature is
essential to my expression. It is the sheer diminutive quality
which whispers
to the viewer, compelling to come closer. For that which started as traditional,
gradually became more meaningful-from the intuitive to a kind
of sacred.
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Privacy as intimacy makes "things" grow. You may"obtain" from
the common outside ground, but it always obtains form in this
damned but without doubt specially blessed, private and special intimacy.
It works both ways. Without doubt without this special intimate
privacy "khalvat" nothing living can be brought to
the common ground >>> Paintings
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