- Artist
- Shirazeh Houshiary born 1955
- Part of
- Round Dance
- Medium
- Etching on paper
- Dimensions
- Image: 605 × 605 mm
- Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Purchased 1993
- Reference
- P77597
Display caption
These images are made from the layering of words inspired by texts by 13th century Sufi poet Jalal al-Din Rumi. Houshiary has said that the repeated words represent the act of breathing. For her, inhalation and exhalation through the lungs gives a feeling of absence and presence. The prints reveal language as a living organism. The repeated round forms convey a spinning movement, reinforced by the title ‘Round Dance’. For Houshiary, these centrifugal, whirling forces are present in all nature. Round Dance connects culture to nature, and words to biology.
Gallery label, June 2021
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