Oil on linen, 2021
Referring to Khamsa by the Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi (c. 1141–1209), this image reimagines a scene from the narrative poem “Khosrow and Shirin.” In this section of the poem, the hero, Farhad, has been ordered to dig a tunnel through Mount Behistun in order to destroy his passion as a stonemason. Before starting the tunnel, Farhad carves portraits of Shirin and her destined love Khosrow on the surface of the rock. When Shirin goes to visit the portraits, she faints with exhaustion and cannot return. Farhad places both Shirin and her exhausted horse on his back, bringing them both down the mountain safely. A resting ride, indeed.
Pardiss Amerian is a Montréal-based painter. Her practice is a process-based exploration of painting and collage driven by narrative asides as a way to address temporality and trans-historicity, with an emphasis on nature and myth. Recently, her work has appeared in solo and group exhibitions at the Stewart Hall Art Gallery (Pointe-Claire), Winter Street Gallery (Paris), Arsenal Contemporary (New York), and joys (Toronto) in 2023; KWAG (Kitchener-Waterloo) and Jack Hanley Gallery (New York) in 2022; Zalucky Contemporary (Toronto) in 2021; and Pierre-François Ouellette Art Contemporain (Montréal) in 2020.
Amerian holds an MFA from Concordia University and a BFA from OCAD University, and has received support from the Ontario Arts Council. Her work is in the collections of the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, the Royal Bank of Canada, Equitable Bank, and numerous private collections.