I had a dream last night I stood in a vacant field soaking in sunlight. Tulips brushed against my ankles welcoming me in a flowerbed I lay in serene peace napping I awoke to raindrops dribbling on my cheeks. The tulips became thistles that trussed me to the gravel. The wind howled and lifted up my skirt. The breeze pressed my shoulders down, their hands sliding to my neck. Bound but untrammeled, I struggled to escape. I sold the mirror, never brought another one. She is something that I left when I decided I needed to flee from my past.
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 mystical journey toward what the artist calls “the search for Truth.” With a wooden door buried in the sand and a mirror reflecting both sea and viewer, the installation becomes a threshold between self and world, quest and surrender, reflection and transformation. Artwork courtesy of featured artist Shirin Abedinirad.
