Tale of Bright Water
25x20"
Oil on Linen
2021
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.