Persian Dreams

AI-driven figurative and abstract works recount the golden age of Persia

Inspired by The Book of Kings, or Shahnameh, these contextually charged artworks suggest temporal linkages; a renewed, digitised interpretation of an age-old Epic Poem. Written by native poet Ferdowsi between c. 977 and 1010 CE, the Shahnameh is the national epic of Iran and recounts a Persian golden age via some 50,000 ‘distichs’ or couplets. This work attests a preservation of mythologies and histories that here lend Dawes’ work an arcane and scholarly agency.

Persian Dreams: Heroes, Persian Dreams: Dynasties, and Persian Dreams: Creation, are stirred, respectively, by the Heroic, Historic, and Mythical Ages of the Shahnameh. Visuals choreographed to the movements of Charlotte Edmonds, are displayed over three uniform screens. Meanwhile a fourth, larger screen Persian Dreams: Monument draws from the whole. Scored by Artist duo Madota, experimental soundscapes incorporate elements of zoorkhaneh – traditional athletic – rituals. In each work, Shahnameh’s verses and visuals are manifest in fortuitous oscillations between figuration and abstraction.

Presented at Art Dubai 2023 with Gazelli Art House.

View the collection.

Press release.