Hossein Edalatkhah

Born in Iran in 1979, Hossein Edalatkhah’s works reflect the cultural heritage and the roots of his background alongside with a modern interpretation of the poetical language of Persian literature and miniatures.

In his work traditional Persian symbols, the combination of recurrent Safavid floral designs, his own very colorful imagery or symbols and a monochrome figure melt into each other in a strange way, as if the painting was not quite finished or had faded with time. Most probably in reference to a thousand year old heritage. The work functions like a binding metaphor in poetry, and is indeed very poetic in terms of its method of meaning-construction through calculated use of symbolism and imagery.

The gender of the figure in his paintings is not quite clear. Merely outlined in black chalk the figure seems to be a male body but long hair falls on the shoulders giving it a feminine touch, a certain fragility, a hint of shyness. The figure has no eyes and no mouth, it mainly stands side-ways as if it wanted to avoid facing the spectator, lost in thoughts or dreams. In other smaller works the figure is reduced to the bust facing the spectator and colorful interlacing covers the head, as if the thoughts or dreams, bursting out of the brain, had muted in lovely flowers strings.

Submitted by artclvb