Visual Perspectives

What does love mean to you? Iran-American artist Hadieh Shafie’s 2021 colored-pencil statement piece titled Safar 1 explores this concept, encouraging viewers to reflect on loving themselves and others, falling in love, and mending heartbreak. Her entire Safar collection (meaning “travel” in Farsi) includes intricately crafted paper spirals with the word Eshgh, meaning “love,” written upon them, rolled thousands of times before being secured. We, like Shafie, firmly believe love will prevail over hate. This piece and work from eight other expatriate Iranian artists are on display as part of ART IRAN: Falling into Language, an exhibit at the Craft Contemporary galleries in Los Angeles, through May 5, 2024.

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