The Nature of Poetic Inspiration

For a poet is a light and winged and sacred thing, and is unable ever to indite until he has been inspired and put out of his senses, and his mind is no longer in him: every man, whilst he retains possession of that, is powerless to indite a verse or chant an oracle. Seeing then that it is not by art that they compose and utter so many fine things about the deeds of men — as you do about Homer — but by a divine dispensation, each is able only to compose that to which the Muse has stirred him, this man dithyrambs, another laudatory odes, another dance-songs, another epic or else iambic verse; but each is at fault in any other kind. For not by art do they utter these things, but by divine influence; since, if they had fully learnt by art to speak on one kind of theme, they would know how to speak on all. And for this reason God takes away the mind of these men and uses them as his ministers, just as he does soothsayers and godly seers, in order that we who hear them may know that it is not they who utter these words of great price, when they are out of their wits, but that it is God himself who speaks and addresses us through them.

~ From Plato's Ion (dialogue)

Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Birds of Paradise, 2008,
Mirror mosaic and reverse glass painting. 180 x 129cm (each).
© of Rose Issa Projects

“Birds of Paradise was inspired by Monir’s love of nature and birds in particular, whom she feeds from her balcony in Tehran and New York. Inspired by the shape and ingenuity of their feathers, she incorporates their perfect form into her geometric compositions, made with mirror mosaics, chalk and three dimensional frames.” (Rose Issa, gallerist)


Kaleidoscope - Convertible Series (more...)

Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Convertible Series, Group 5, Versions 1 & 3, 2010,
Mosaic mirrors and plaster on wood, Sizes Variable

Through out her long career, Farmanfarmaian's work exhibits a strong connection to the history of Iranian reverse glass and mirror mosaics, a craft traditionally passed on from father to son.

Her work brings together the tradition and the avant-garde to form colourful and geometric motifs: circles, squares and polygons are skilfully cast within the rigorous mould of classical Islamic geometrical design.

It was in the late 60s when Farmanfarmaian started experimenting with adapting and combining age old techniques of reverse-glass painting, mirror mosaics and Iranian design with a modern abstract expressionism and minimalism. The result is a geometric and reflective kaleidoscope with shard-like forms of colour and light slicing through fragments of mirror. (via The Third Line)

Breaking the Waves, 2008, Mirror and reverse glass, 135 x 86 cm