‘ Man moves continuously in an undulating and expanding space that is forever united ’  

(Ardalan & Bakhtiar, The Sense of Unity: The Sufi Tradition and Architecture, p. 17)

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 ‘You’re the connection: it is the mix of human being and reflection and artwork’   

(Farmanfarmaian et al, Cosmic Geometry, 2011, p. 27)

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Abstract

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The practice of one of the most prominent contemporary Iranian artists, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian (1924 - 2019), spans seven decades. This dissertation explores the four main themes: ruptured modernisms, fragment, symmetry and spectator. While most of the artworks selected for this discussion were produced starting from 2008, two pieces from the 1970s are also included.

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Contemporary scholarship on Farmanfarmaian’s oeuvre may benefit from this study because the aforementioned themes have not yet been addressed at length. Her work is often presented in generalised terms. This dissertation demonstrates that the notion of unity is at the intersection of three themes discussed, namely: piecing together fragments of various kinds, the symmetry that polarises and orders space and the spectator as is the nexus of it all.

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As it will become evident the artist uses complex ideas from Sufi cosmology and Persian decorative tradition in her own way to enrich her work symbolically and aesthetically rather than communicating ideas about the transcendental. The dissertation takes apart the notions of fragment and unity to argue that the artist generally tends towards order in her work, which often manifests through symmetry. The participatory role of the spectator is facilitated by both fragmentary and reflective properties of the media. The paper culminates with a discussion on the unifying role adopted by the spectator at the moment of experiencing a mirror work first-hand.