Let go of your worries

and be completely clear-hearted,

like the face of a mirror

that contains no images.

If you want a clear mirror,

behold yourself

and see the shameless truth,

which the mirror reflects.

If metal can be polished

to a mirror-like finish,

what polishing might the mirror

of the heart require?

“ Rumi”

Conceptual Artist: Shirin Abedinirad

Photographer: Mehdi Teimory

November 2018 / Iran

Abedinirad’s work for LAM re-contextualizes elements that were once adapted and adopted from East Asian traditions into Iranian art. A Sheet of transparent while fabric placed around a tree catches the shadows cast by the branches as the tree moves in the wind. The wind catches the screen also, and its movements form a counterpoint to those of the branches above, creating a dance choreographed by nature.

The Artwork provided the artist with an interaction with the environment in a rhythm of repetition and continuity. Her viewpoint is that of the audience, with nature as the performer: a merging of her subjectivity with that of the surrounding natural world. As she says: ‘I am involved in silent dialogue with nature; a dialogue with a mighty presence that was beholding me.’

Prince Claus Fund’s support

August 2018 / Mongolia / Land Art Mongolia 5th Biennale

Artavenue 5th Land Art Biennial LAM 360° - WHO ARE WE NOW?

As an artist I do not have a studio and most of the time people are asking me to visit my studio and I am saying I do not have any. It is unbelievable for them but not for me. Because my artworks for me are not completed without nature and I cannot bring nature to my place. So I want to bring my art to nature who is my partner.

When you say nature, usually people imagine a forest, a jungle or a green land where they can lay down on the shadows of the trees, listen to the bird’s song. For me desert is a world most pure place where I can talk to nature soul and have a long conversation with. There is no bird to listen to, but there is a wind that plays a beautiful symphony. Nature is inspiring for me and most of the time I am going alone there and I am sitting and starting to talk to it.

My studio in desert does not have a roof or borders. I can always watch sky, clouds, sun, moon and starts. I have a door, which is open to anyone in the world. I have no cloths in my drawers but I have sky inside of it. I have gramophone that I am playing the mirrored vinyl with it, which contains no sound, but it is reflecting the sky and you can hear the winds sound. I have a dry tree that I brought life to it with a carpet; carpet is the symbol of paradise. I have cage that does not have any birds inside, the door is open and I have a piece of sky in my cage. I have a Howz which is bringing water to the desert but reflecting the blue sky above me.

2018 / Morocco

Producer: Nikon & Mini

TRENDLAND ‘House In The Wind’ by Shirin Abedinirad by Anna Khitrina

One of the first uses of mirrors in architecture was in Persepolis, Persia at the Tachara Palace. Glossy black stones were polished till their surface was reflective, expanding the palace’s size and beauty. 2,000 years later, I return to the concept of doubling space and light with Heaven on Earth, an installation project that was showcased in Italy in 2014.

The basic geometric shapes and symmetrical composition of the mirrors angling up the cement stairs are borrowed from Islamic art, where symmetry is considered the highest form of beauty. For me, the use of mirrors is integral to creating a paradise; mirrors give light, an important mystical concept in Persian culture.

Standing in front of the staircase, the audience is facing a transformative view of themselves, and their notion of how the world is structured. When the audience stands at the top of the stairs and looks down, they come face to face with an optical illusion that increases their light, and therefore their spirituality of the space. The very physics of nature are turned on their head- the sky is now the ground- and the light of the sun is magnified around the viewer. The blue sky spills onto the ground, mimicking a pool, and the audience is momentarily overcome with the desire to jump into the light. 

June 2014 / Italy / Treviso / Fabrica

CASA VOGUE  O cenário espelhado da artista iraniana by Luisa Cella 

COLOSSAL Mirror Installations by Shirin Abedinirad Reflect the Sky in Stairs and Desert Dunes by by Christopher Jobson

MY MODERN MET Iranian Artist’s Mirror Installations Symbolize the Relationship Between Humans and Nature by Anna Gragert

Vanilla Magazine A Treviso la Scala a Specchio di Shirin Abedinirad riflette il Cielo come uno Specchio d'Aqua by Annalisa Lo Monaco

MNN Stroll across the sky in these dreamy mirror installations by Catie Leary  

In this installation I have been inspired by the pyramidal structure of Ziggurat, a common form of temple in ancient Mesopotamia, attempting to connect earth and sky, so humans could be nearer to god.

The Mirrored Ziggurat acts as a staircase, which seeks to connect nature with human beings and to create union of ancient history and today’s world. This installation offers a transformative view of the self. 

The Mirrored Ziggurat has seven levels that represent seven heavens. For me, mirrors amplify this paradise, giving light; an important mystical concept in Persian Culture, and a medium creating an optical illusion.

August 2015 / Australia / Sydney / Underbelly Arts Festival

The Sydney Morning Herald  Underbelly Arts Festival: Iranian artist wants viewers to take a good long look at themselves by Nicholas Adams-Dzierzba

URBANIST  Disappearing Architecture: 15 Mirrored Buildings Distort Perception by SA Rogers

Open City Project Top 5 installations of 2015 by Niki Angelis

COLOSSAL A Ziggurat of Mirrors by Shirin Abedinirad Connects the Sky and Ground in Sydney by Christopher Jobson

Fubiz Mirrored Ziggurat to Connect The Earth and Sky

WIDE OPEN COUNTRY This Amazing Mirrored Pyramid Brings the Sky Down to Earth by Lorie Leibig

ABC NEWS Emerging artists converge on Sydney's Underbelly

In Evocation, I tackle one of the formidable problems with desert dwelling: the lack of water. Exhibited in Iran Central Desert in 2013, this land art installation utilizes the reflective power of mirrors to bring quenching blue pools of “water” to the sand.

It is the ultimate mirage in the desert. At first glance, the mirrored circles, partially covered in the golden sand, appear to be small ponds. Only after a moment do we realize that it is actually the sky, reflected across the dunes. By altering our perception of nature and offering us a false narrative, I challenge the relationship between the human mind and the fundamental elements of nature. 

May 2013 / Iran / Isfahan / Central desert

(Interactive Installation)

The story of the tower of Babel happened in a time when humankind had just one language and just one place to live freely without boundaries; a united humanity of the generations. The Lord concerned that humankind could have too much power and freedom, punished them for their pride by multiplying their languages so that they could not be able to understand one another.

Babel Tower is an interactive installation that recontextualizes the spiritual architecture of the Babel Tower with modern materials, creating a union between ancient history and our present world; it is combining the past, present and offering a union for future.

The top view of installation by reflecting the sky is connecting it to the earth, symbolizing the aim of Babel tower to reach for the heaven; The structural use of mirrors, serve as a reflective vessel for light, an integral feature of paradise.

When installed in a city location it reacts with different animation patterns to the audience interaction, when placed in a natural environment its movement are changing depending on the weather conditions. This interactive installation is giving a transformative image of the world by decomposing it into parts and recomposing it into a new union.

In this installation human is having a dialogue with city and nature to become one. This installation simply within a movement of human is changing the image of the nature and is gathering the view of the entire world in one piece.

Conceptual Artist: Shirin Abedinirad

Interaction Designer: Guglielmo Torelli

2016 / Iran / TADAEX2015

WIRED 8 Remote Works of Art We Insist You Track Down by Liz Stinson

WIRED Watch a Pyramid of Mirrors Morph Based on Desert Weather by Margaret Rhodes

WIRED JAPAN カビール砂漠に現れた「鏡張りのバベルの塔」

DEZEEN  Babel Tower spins to reflect Iran's desert landscape by Dan Howarth

COLOSSAL Babel Tower: A Kinetic Mirrored Ziggurat Reflects the Surrounding Iranian Landscape by Christopher Jobson

Culturetrip   This Artist Makes Mirrored Towers To Create Epic Optical Illusions by Olivia Costanzo

IGNANT A Mirrored Tower Of Babel Installation by Anna Ker

Journal du Design Babel Tower par Shirin Abedinirad

Fubiz  The Mirrored Babel Tower

TECH INSIDER

FILE Electronic Language International Festival  

‘You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul’, wrote George Bernard Shaw in his set of plays Back to Methuselah in 1918. Created one hundred years after, Shirin Abedinirad’s monumental assemblage of mirrored retro television sets in the shape of a Ziggurat interrogates similar themes of reflection, revelation, illusion and truth. Situated on the grassy isthmus at the mouth of the Erskine River, Revision is a site-specific land art project that mirrors all that is around it. When the space is empty, the mirrored TV screens reflect nature as it transforms itself from night to day. The ocean, sky and birdlife of the area become the only subject on the screens. When the isthmus is populated, it reflects the movements of people – joggers, walkers, children, dogs, lovers and loners who visit the site each day. Writing from her home in Tehran, Shirin comments, ‘this project invites audiences to watch a nature in a new frame. Instead of watching TV news, which we do not know if it is true or not, we could break the waves that televisions create and watch reality and nature instead. This installation creates a live movie through the simple reflection of everyone and everything around it. When there is no one in the beach the ocean itself plays a major role and it is watching its’s beauty’.

Born in Tabriz, Iran in 1986, Abedinirad is a conceptual performance artist. Revision is an example of her recent practice working with mirrors and the psychological power of their reflective properties. She writes, ‘In my recent projects I am trying to change the face of the nature. Mirror, water, metal, stone or any kind of element that has reflective capability is interesting for me. But mirror, with increasing the light gives much more clear reflection. It seems like it is a combination of two vital elements: Light and water, sometimes beside each other and sometimes in conflict with each other’. In 2015 she exhibited Mirrored Ziggurat on Cockatoo Island, Sydney for the Underbelly Arts Festival.

Abedinirad commenced as a painter, studying graphic design and later fashion design at the Dr. Shariaty University in Tehran. Here she began to examine conceptual art and the way in which it overlaps with fashion design. In 2010, she was invited to work at Benetton’s research centre, Fabrica, in Treviso, Italy and in 2014 she returned there to undertake a one-year scholarship. Her performance practice in Iran confronts issues of identity, gender, sexuality, and human compassion. Studying under the critically acclaimed Iranian director, Abbas Kiarostami, she makes video art, exploring the notion of self and identity, repetition and reflection with moving images. Kiarostami influenced her to engage with nature in this dialogue.

Revision has been created from a global collaboration with the retro televisions supplied by Geelong-based emperor of reclaimed global junk, Ian Ballis of The Powerhouse. David McKenzie and Robert Rednell fabricator has prepared the frame.

March 2018 / Lorne / Landfall Lorne Sculpture Biennale

Project supported by Kerry Gardner and Andrew Myer

SATURDAY PAPER Scavenging art for Landfall: Lorne Sculpture Biennale by Gabriella Coslovich

THE ABC NEWS Virtual iceberg off Victorian coast features in sculpture festival by Cameron Best

The World News Review: Wander a magical path at the Lorne Sculpture Biennale

Designboom these TV screens may actually show you something real for a change: self reflection by Zack Andrews

FLOORNATURE Revision, a site-specific installation by Shirin Abedinirad / by Christiane Bürklein

dis-up! Shirin Abedinirad revela la naturaleza en movimiento a través de reflejos en pantallas retro de TV

MaxiTendance Pyramide de Postes de Télévision pour une Installation d’Art by Zack

VIRTUTE Revision, des écrans télé pour reconnecter l’homme à la nature by Nina Vathelet

Fubiz Nature Reflection in Televisions

Collarter.al Revision, reality reflected in Shirin Abedinirad’s televisions by Giulia Ficicchia

Plain Magazine Shirin Abedinirad creates a pyramid of TV sets that reflect real life by Kala Barba-Court

Forté Lorne Sculpture Biennale, Victoria’s largest public outdoor sculpture event by Daniel Jubb

REVISTA PICNIC REVISION, REALIDADES PARALELAS POR SHIRIN ABEDINIRAD by Karla Ivette Escudero Beltrán

Mirrored Installation.

One Belt One Road Visual Arts Exhibition , organized by The Hong Kong Federation of Women in Sotheby’s Hong Kong Gallery.

The ancient Silk Road has left a precious legacy of arts and culture. Curated by Pansy Ho, this exhibition unites the voices of today’s women who trace their own heritage to this region and reconnect to its history through contemporary art practice. Embracing the spirit of the Belt and Road Initiative, the exhibition reawakens the diversity of culture, language and art through the eyes of women throughout history, today and for our future.

April 2016 / Hong Kong / Sotheby's Hong Kong

The Sky is Mine is a land art project by Shirin Abedinirad, which is now the part of The Absence of Paths curated by Lina Lazzar for Tunisian Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia. The Absence of Paths is an integral component to the physical pavilion in Venice, the online platform is a democratic space to showcase contributors’ thoughts and perspectives on migration.

"Where I am, let is be so

The Sky is mine."

Sohrab Sepehri (1928-1980)

The land on which I realise my dreams, is replete with hopes and despair for me, even though it destroys my mountains to build high-rise apartments in the heart of the mountains. They cut trees to build roads for the vehicles whose lives are becoming shorter with the passage of time. Every morning on this very land, there is news about the death of dozens of children, animals and humans and each death news howls with hope. On this land, among stony paths and vast deserts, I am seeking a place that would be a window of life full of hope and delight. On the gloomy paths before me, I am looking for skies. Throughout the dark clouds, I am searching for a comforting blue which is the liberation from my bitter moments on the land that I love. I know that some people sieve dreams and impose the realities on me. However, I will bring my dreams from the sky to the land.

Shirin Abedinirad

March 2017 / Semnan / Iran 

tae  Absence of Paths: “The Sky is Mine” – New Work from Shirin Abedinirad by Chantelle Lamoreaux

Is nature aware of its own beauty? The question came to me after reading the mythological story of Narcissus and spending time in the desert, which to me, represents purity. Humans are able to see the exquisiteness of nature with their own eyes; I wanted to alter the perspective so that the desert could witness its own beauty.

In Narcissus, I used round mirrors and basic geometric shapes to create reflections of nature across the desert. The use of simple shapes was intentional; these mimic the forms commonly found in nature. For the viewer, the beauty of nature is ultimately doubled; we are, as always, the lucky recipients. This land art installation was exhibited in Iran Central Desert, 2013. 

May 2013 / Iran / Isfahan / Central desert

Between 1980-1988, the Iran-Iraq war killed half a million soldiers and nearly as many civilians. This war, like all others, created divisions along the fault lines of religion and politics. I was most interested in transcending these divides by focusing on the individuals who succumbed to death. Exhibited in the city of Ahwaz in Iran, 2013, Eight Paradise is a living, metamorphosing memory of the lives lost.

The installation included eight metal stands, representing each year of the war. Each stand held a personal object of a martyr, such as a rosary, a book, or an ascot, encased in an ice cube. The objects were intentionally chosen as a material representation of the person’s soul. Under the hot southern sun, the ice slowly melted, the drops collecting in a bowl at the bottom of the stand. It made the sound of rain.

In death, the soul leaves the body and we become a spirit; we are transformed from one element to another. Water, in its solid form, is ice; as it melts it returns to its liquid nature. To me, the death of these individual martyrs did not represent the loss of a physical body, but rather the transition into spirit. In Eight Paradise, I was able to manipulate the audience’s remembrance of death by focusing on the transformative nature of life.    

October 2013 / Iran / Ahwaz / Museum of Contemporary Art

Video Art Exhibited "In Between: So Far" Curated by Shahram Karimi in Mana Contemporary 

BBC  آثار شش زن ایرانی در نمایشگاه بینابین در نیویورک

FINANCIAL TRIBUNE   NY to Host Tenets of Iranian Video Art

My soul has been exposed to danger during my lifetime, which made me fragile. I have tried to ignore the menace of these dangers and to watch the world with the dreams of calm human and far from worries of destruction, but every time I have been reminded of an incident that it is not possible to be tranquil. I have tried to cleanse myself from fears and despair, to polish my soul, not to be angry, not to be bitter and live with hope. I polished my soul and made such a mirror. Sometimes I was broken, and I looked around the world through my mirror and I was broken again ... This time I took a deeper crack in the continuation of the previous one. I love these cracks because they change my image of the world.

 Sometimes a disturbing imaginative is intimidating me. I feel it in the unknown volume on top of my head. Sometimes this imagination is so small that one can ignore it, but the repeated influx of that world cuts me in pieces; it breaks me and does not leave me. Sometimes I impose my great reality upon myself, and I see my survival in resistance, and I stand to stay. In any case, my life is not safe from the invasion of stones of existence. I was never worried about the massive meteorite attack on my house and life. Meteoroids have treated us more kindly until now. I have been always worried about the mornings that from a very close, near, completely anonymous place, a polished stone will fall on my life.

October 2018 / Tehran

A video installation between Shirin Abedinirad and Dionne Lee

In 1687, Isaac Newton proposed his First Law of Motion, the law of inertia: A body at rest tends to remain at rest, a body in motion tends to stay in motion. Bodies will continue in their current state, whether at rest or in motion, unless acted on by a greater outside force. As political tension between Iran and the United States increases, ongoing struggles for world power and resources directly impact everyday lives. The laws of inertia and resistance apply to both places despite the time difference (Eleven and a Half Hours, UTC-7 hours, time zone PDT).

Eleven and a Half Hours is an exhibition focused on how Iranian and American residents carry on living despite varying levels of political turmoil that maintain a state of unrest. A collaboration between two female artists in parallel political and geographical locations showcases an attempt to resist the law of inertia by entering into a conversation and sharing experiences of discomfort in a sanctioned world. This exhibition is curated by Shaghayegh Cyrous as the culminating project of Aggregate Space Gallery’s annual intensive gallery internship.

Photos and Videos by Aaron Rosenstreich

18 August - 23 September 2017 / US / Aggregate Space Gallery 

KQED Arts  Making Iran and Oakland Feel Like the Same Place by Eda Yu 

DISSOLVE SF  Shaghayegh Cyrous with Kathryn Barulich and Christopher Squier (time/difference: Part I)

Between 1980-1988, the Iran-Iraq war killed half a million soldiers and nearly as many civilians. This war, like all others, created divisions along the fault lines of religion and politics. I was most interested in transcending these divides by focusing on the individuals who succumbed to death.

In death, the soul leaves the body and we become a spirit; we are transformed from one element to another. Water, in its solid form, is ice; as it melts it returns to its liquid nature. To me, the death of these individual martyrs did not represent the loss of a physical body, but rather the transition into spirit. In Eight Paradise, I was able to manipulate the audience’s remembrance of death by focusing on the transformative nature of life.

Dimensions: 1920 × 1080

Duration: 00:02:30 (2 minutes and 30 seconds)

Music: Stress (Ahmad Pejman) from the Album "Memories of Tomorrow" Courtesy of Hermes Records

October 2013 / Iran

A second was sufficient to reach the zero degree of humanity.

A second was sufficient to hear the most terrifying sound of the century.

A second was sufficient for the hands of all clocks to stop.

The abstract time is being stopped. The very riotous second that has been imprinted on the mind of modern man forever. The riot whose representation is beyond the capability of any writing tools or images. The image of world changed forever after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki disasters. As a result, a new fear came into existence. Now with evaporation of the memories, we have passed many years from the nightmarish degree of that time, however, something agitating and visual continues to grow in us. How long will the war mentality of humankind continue to exist? And when the humankind will put it head on the peace pillow. We do not know! Nevertheless, we will keep alive our hope in mind, in social and cultural actions, and on the planet earth.

Dimensions: 1920 × 1080

Duration: 00:07:54 (7 minutes and 54 seconds)

Music: Excerpts from “Sonata II for Piano and Persian Instruments” composed by Alireza Mashayekhi, performed by Farimah Ghavamsadri and the Iranian Orchestra for New Music. From the Album “Celebration” (Hermes Records) Remixed by Ramin Sadighi

August 2012 / Iran

September 2013 / Iran / Isfahan / Central desert

A video-installation for the memorial of the two atomic attacks in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

August 2012 / Iran / Tehran / Tehran Peace Museum

2011 / ‘’Traditional miniature painting of Rajasthan and present art scenario in MohanLal Sukhadia University / Udaipur, India

A performance which was a reference to symbolic signification and semiological phallic senses in order to show a reaction to masculine powers in societies which suppress women.

September 2012 / Turkey / Istanbul / Taksim

6 PiLLARS

A performance and a photo video art project which represents psychotherapeutic conditions in Iran and criticized some kind of pharmacological treatments.

February 2012 / Iran / Tehran / Kabk Gallery

This was an interactive happening performance, which asked audience to pour boiled water on me. It was a psychological test for resistance, which showed the people's reactions who faced with it.

March 2013 / Spain / Murcia / IBAFF Festival

An interactive performance, in which I asked passengers to give their worthless stuff and to attach them to my clothes as a memento. The project shows the people's cultural values and it represents their favorites and wishes. Furthermore, it can be launched in other locations and countries.

May 2011 / Iran / Tehran / Subway

November 2012 / India / Mumbai / Railway

Conceptual Artist: Shirin Abedinirad

Photographer: Mehdi Teimory