“Eye on the ball,” the revolution said, finding an invincible summer.
“Protect your peace,” the mashrabiyya whispered, and abided.
You took heart in the country, its latticework of light on your face,
opening a window, a private theatre escaped onto Europe.
Sugar cube geometry of love, a Taj Mahal
of a thousand nooks, transubstantiation of shadows.
Spectacle of fragment--millions of montages to come.
You love an anecdote of refusal, the narrative penchant
toward dismissal, the heat bending light on the road
making italics, operatic flower and bird refraction
bringing eternity to mind. You’re left alone among waves,
a distraction from now discredited “Enlightenment.”
Shirin Abedinirad, Tide, 2019. Land art, Currumbin, Australia. Presented at the Swell Sculpture Festival, the work draws on Attar’s Mantiq al-Tayr (The Conference of the Birds) and its seven mystical valleys, transforming a wooden door buried in sand into a mirrored threshold of sea, self, and revelation. Inspired by what the artist describes as “the search for Truth,” the installation invites viewers into a moment of reflection, self-realization, and passage. Artwork courtesy of featured artist Shirin Abedinirad.
