Opening at Aaran Projects on 1st November 2019
On view until 18th November 2019

 In her adaptation of one of the best-known poems of Persia, The Conference of the Birds by Sufi Mystic poet Farid Uddin Attar, Nasim Davari evokes many layers of this masterpiece; exquisiteness, lyricisms, symbolism, and ingenuity. Using her magical brushes, she takes us on her own journey, along with the poet’s birds, to a higher otherworldly insight that reveals her wild and unequal imagination.
She tells the stories of Hoopoe, peacock, sparrow, dove, duck, nightingale, parrot, partridge, heron, owl, falcon…; thirty birds who set out on a hazardous journey to the faraway peaks of Mount Qaf, a mythical mountain that wraps around the earth, in search of their mysterious Simurgh, their king, to find out that they are the kings eventually.
The allegories in this set of paintings trigger memories deep within humans. While we may take flight together, the journey is different for each of us. The poem and these paintings touch on many issues of a postmodern life: individuality, coexistence, respect for values of self and others, the right to freedom, and the freedom of choice.
Through her wild imagination, Nasim Davari is able to transport us to her magical world. This is a study of self and others. A fanfare of fierce images and fantastical colors. She is a master painter and dreamer at her best. In this mystical and wild world artist speaks the language of birds, the divine language used by the initiated, the one used by Solomon to speak with birds so that those who can hear it will hear it.
She reminds us that the mundane world is passable and insignificant. It’s best not to try and explain this magical world but to float in the wonder she creates. Stepping away from these paintings, the world will become factual and mundane again.