2021 - PA Portfolio

Narcissi
36x30
Oil on Linen
2022
Purchased with funds donated by Senta Ross, Kitchener, in honour of Shirley Madill, Executive Director of the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery (2011-present), 2022.

در پیکر باغ شکل نرگس

چشمی است که ریخته ست مژگان

silhouettes of Narcissi in the garden’s body

like eyes that cried out their lashes

کور از روشنی مشعل نرگس بیند

هرچه در خاطر موری گذرد در شب تار

The blind in Narcissi’s torchlight

Sees what crosses the ant’s mind

In the blur of the night

Narcissus is a genus of spring flowering perennial plants more commonly known in Canada as daffodils. The genus was well-known in ancient civilization as well, both medicinally and botanically. The species are native to areas of North Africa and southern Europe and evidence suggests bulbs were introduced into the Far East prior to the tenth century.

In the West, the narcissus is perceived as a symbol of vanity, while in the East it is seen as a symbol of wealth and good fortune. In Persian literature, however, the narcissus is a symbol of beautiful eyes. Some people associate the blooms with being unlucky because they hang their heads, whereas white narcissi in particular are often linked with death and planted near tombs.

Amerian is interested in the varying symbolism of the same flower across disparate geographies and times, and here invokes the Greek mythological reading of vanity with a figure falling for one’s own reflection.

Part of S.O.S: A Story of Survival, Part I- The Image, at the Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery, 8 Oct 2022- 22 Jan 2023. Description courtesy of KWAG.

Of Red Still Waters, Mice and Gilded Books
12x10
Oil on Linen
2022
Available

Excerpt from the poem Terrestrial Verses, by Forugh Farrokhzad (1934-1967)
Translated by Muhammad Rajabpour

…The swamps of alcohol
giving off a poisonous bitter vapor
drew into their depth
the motionless mass of intellectuals.

And the noxious mice
chewed up the gilded pages of books
preserved in ancient chests…

Forugh Farrokhzad was an influential modernist Iranian poet of extraordinary ability. Hers was the poetry of protest through revelation. Her strong feminine voice often became the focus of much negative attention and disapproval at home, both during her lifetime and in some posthumous reflections on her work. Nonetheless, her words have inspired countless Iranians, young and old, in their own music, paintings, essays and lives.

Part of S.O.S: A Story of Survival, Part I- The Image, at the Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery, 8 Oct 2022- 22 Jan 2023. Description courtesy of KWAG.

Resting Ride
12x10
Oil on Linen
2021
Available

Looking again to Nizami Ganjavi’s Khamsa (c. 1163-1197), this image reimagines a scene from Khusraw and Shirin. In this section of the poem, the hero Farhad had been ordered to dig a tunnel through Mount Behistun in order to destroy his passion as a stonemason. Before starting the tunnel, Farhad carved portraits of Shirin and her destined love Khusraw on the surface of the rock. When Shirin went to visit the portraits, she fainted with exhaustion and could not return. Farhad placed both Shirin and her exhausted horse on his back, bringing them both down the mountain safely. A resting ride, indeed.

Part of S.O.S: A Story of Survival, Part I- The Image, at the Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery, 8 Oct 2022- 22 Jan 2023. Description courtesy of KWAG.

Installation view, SOS: A Story of Survival, Part I – The Image, at the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, 8 Oct 2022 – 22 Jan 2023. Photo courtesy of KWAG.

Melancolie

12x10

Oil on linen

2021

Moon and Cypress

36x30

Oil on Linen

2021

Refuge

12x10

Oil on Linen

2021

Magic Mountain

Installation Shot

Jack Hanley Gallery

Magic Mountain

Installation Shot

Jack Hanley Gallery

Magic Mountain

Installation Shot

Jack Hanley Gallery

Night

12x10"
Oil on linen
Private collection, FR

Illuminated manuscripts have historically served both religious and secular purposes. Drawing from this visual tradition, Amerian utilizes the conventions of illuminated painting – such as its history and layered process – to create ethereal, abstracted works.
Her approach bridges historic Persian literary prose and experimental methods of image making. By utilizing monoprint techniques and by pressing sheets of paper into diluted paint on the surface of the painting and peeling it off again, material is pushed and pulled by chance, building up a surface of veils that has remarkable depth. Ancient stories survive through these pictorial translations and demonstrate their contemporary agency.
This particular work re-imagines a manuscript panel titled Lovers at Night from 1539-4.

Part of S.O.S: A Story of Survival, Part I- The Image, at the Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery,

8 Oct 2022- 22 Jan 2023. Description courtesy of KWAG.

Tunes for Shirin

36x30"

Oil on Linen

2021

Opening

36x30"

Oil on Linen

2021

Tale of Bright Water

25x20"

Oil on Linen

2021
Available

Like Albino on the left, Tale of Bright Water also stems from deep romance. Looking to Nizami Ganjavi’s Khamsa (c. 1163-1197), this image reimagines a scene from Khusraw and Shirin, the second of five long narrative poems that constitute the epic text. In the poem, the Persian prince Khusraw has a dream of his grandfather making four predictions, all of which come true:
You will receive four things… You shall ride Shabdiz, the world’s swiftest and most fabled steed… You shall sit on Taqdis, the throne of thrones…; at your bidding, Barbad the musician shall play and with the lightest touch will far surpass the broken notes of your lost minstrel. But beyond all these, you shall have Shirin, your destined love.

The final prediction, that he would marry Shirin, is delayed many years while the couple’s personal qualities are tested during legendary travels across the region. In the end, they survive their trials and find each other on palace grounds showered with glittering gold and silks.

Part of S.O.S: A Story of Survival, Part I- The Image, at the Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery,
8 Oct 2022- 22 Jan 2023. Description courtesy of KWAG.

Albino

25x20"

Oil on Linen

2021
Available

Albino brings two transitory motifs together. The first reference is to winter white ferns. These deciduous ferns absorb nutrients from their leaves to be stored in underground stems, turning the green leaves bright white. Soon after, the white leaves curl up and fall away. The second reference is to the Persian story of Rudaba. the princess of Kabul who lets down a ladder of her hair for Zaal, a legendary warrior of the Shahnameh epic (977-1010). In the Persian language, Zāl also refers to those who have albinism. Instead of climbing up Rudaba’s ladder, Zaal tosses a lasso up to the roof and climbs to his beloved.

Part of S.O.S: A Story of Survival, Part I- The Image, at the Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery, 8 Oct 2022- 22 Jan 2023. Description courtesy of KWAG.