Few artworks make such an immediate connection to us as sculpture does, for it also has a body and bodily mass, like ours. When encountered with Mehdi Shirahmadi’s sculptures for the first time, we might gaze at them, took a distance, and examine them in relation to ourselves. We might be impressed by their scale and extension in horizontal, vertical and oblique axes.

Closer examination, however, will reveal repetitive motifs, continuous lines, and slim metal bars, which do not appear as a coating, but are intertwined in the very body of the sculpture, and, practically, make it up. Some faces of the sculpture reveal geometric patterns familiar to the Iranian eye, associated with Khatam work. The unique quality if these pieces is then revealed: Each of these sculptures is made up from putting together hundreds and thousands of slim wooden and brass bars, just as we see in the formation of a Khatam ornamental piece.

Here the material for the work has already retained a specific form. In other words, the elongated and triangular building blocks are foundational. Their multiplicity brings about a modular quality, like a carpet, which is made of millions of knots. The triangular section of the module is responsible for the geometric pattern, while its elongation actually makes up the body of the work, like bones, vessels, and nerves. The content comes immediately out of the form, and the external facet reveals what happens within.

Helia Darabi