Persian Dreams: Monument

Inspired by The Book of Kings, or Shahnameh, these contextually charged artworks suggest temporal linkages; a renewed, digitised interpretation of an age-old Epic Poem. Written by native poet Ferdowsi between c. 977 and 1010 CE, the Shahnameh is the national epic of Iran and recounts a Persian golden age via some 50,000 ‘distichs’ or couplets. This work attests a preservation of mythologies and histories that here lend Dawes’ work an arcane and scholarly agency. Monument creates a constantly changing and rotating monolith inspired by The Book of Kings and Persian culture. Whilst inspired by the past, Monument is a modern digital object, present in the here and now, a statement to the universal teachings, still relevant today in the Shahnameh.