In a queit space, Sharyar Hatami\u2019s sculptures stand like puzzles of light and shadow. Each piece initially appears as a disjointed array of painted fragments suspended in air \u2013 metal silhouettes and glass panes arranged in layers. Yet, step directly in front of one, and a wondrous transformation occurs: the fragments coalesce into a single, coherent image, as perfect and intricate as a Persian miniature painting. This almost alchemical moment of alignment \u2013 when chaos resolves into harmony \u2013 lies at the heart of Hatami\u2019s art. He orchestrates a delicate interplay between fragmentation and wholeness, demanding the viewer\u2019s active presence. Only from one precise vantage point does the complete picture reveal itself, reminding us that vision is an act of discovery. In this way, Hatami literally \u201cchallenges observation and visual perception,\u201d as he describes of his own practice . His works are not merely to be seen; they are to be solved by the eyes, encouraging a poetic kind of participation where the viewer becomes the final piece of the artwork\u2019s puzzle. Sharyar Hatami is a multidisciplinary artist from Tehran whose creations blur the boundaries between painting and sculpture . Trained in art and architecture, he approaches images with an engineer\u2019s precision and a poet\u2019s soul. His passion for the history of seeing is evident \u2013 he draws on centuries of art history, especially the rich heritage of Persian miniature painting, yet never places it on a untouchable pedestal. Instead, he engages classical art in a critical dialogue, allowing past and present to \u201cwork against each other\u201d in productive tension. In his own words, references are not included to be reverently praised or give easy joy; rather, Hatami lets old and new visual languages collide and converse . The results are artworks that feel at once ancient and strikingly novel, reverent of tradition yet radically inventive. By mixing two-dimensional imagery with three-dimensional structure \u2013 and even incorporating mechanical contraptions in some cases \u2013 he questions what a painting can be and how we perceive it. Is it a window, a mirror, an object? Hatami\u2019s art suggests it is all of these and more, inviting us to reconsider the nature of creation itself. In fact, he is unafraid to let his process \u201cgo against the nature of creation and even ruin it\u201d . This bold willingness to destroy an image in order to rebuild it anew gives his work a thrilling edge of risk and rebirth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of Hatami\u2019s most mesmerizing works is a piece titled \u201cAfter Sultan Mohamad,\u201d inspired by a famous 16th-century Persian miniature from the Divan of Hafez. From the front, \u201cAfter Sultan Mohamad\u201d resolves into a vibrant courtly scene lifted straight from Persian lore, but from any other angle its image splinters into disparate shards of metal and glass. Hatami has taken the original miniature \u2013 painted by the great Sultan Mohammad \u2013 and resurrected it in three dimensions. To do so, he has dissected the image into multiple layers, each element delicately cut from metal and mounted on transparent panes. The effect is that of a floating canvas pulled apart into component pieces: perhaps a delicately rendered figure on one pane, an architectural detail on another, a tree or a cloud on the next. Viewed obliquely, these pieces appear isolated, like the scattered verses of a poem; nothing aligns and the narrative seems lost. But step to the front and the pieces magically fuse into the very picture from which they came, every figure and motif snapping back into place. It is as if Hatami has built a tangible embodiment of a mirage \u2013 an image that materializes only when the viewer is standing in the one true spot. In this dynamic, Hatami achieves something akin to divine perspective: the artwork humbles the viewer into recognizing that truth depends on how one looks. The front view offers the revelation, while any other view shows only the concealed structure behind the illusion. This delicate balance between the revealed and concealed in \u201cAfter Sultan Mohamad\u201d underscores Hatami\u2019s fascination with perspective and hidden geometries. He gives form to the idea that Persian miniatures, though often termed \u201cflat\u201d or non-perspectival, carry their own complex spatial logic \u2013 a \u201cvisual grammar\u201d born of geometry and imagination . By literally engineering a miniature painting into layered space, Hatami pays homage to that hidden grammar and also transforms it, adding a new chapter to the story of the art form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hatami\u2019s creative approach could be described as visual engineering, a term he himself invoked when curating an exhibition on Persian painting. He treats classical images almost like an architect would treat a building: by drafting, deconstructing, and reassembling them according to a blueprint of vision. In Persian miniatures (known as neg\u0101rgari), the art is often seen as \u201cmultilayered and mysterious\u201d, intertwined with the \u201cimaginal world\u201d and the realm of divinity\u201d . Hatami\u2019s work embraces this mystique but shifts the mystery from the content of the image to the mechanics of seeing the image. He reveals that there is indeed a kind of hidden geometry and intellectual structure underlying these old paintings \u2013 not apparent at first glance, but discoverable through careful study or, in his case, creative reconstruction. By separating the layers of a miniature, he makes its inner workings visible. We are allowed to wander, visually, among the layers that a 15th-century Persian painter once compressed into a single plane. This is a new way of looking at an old art, almost like peering behind the curtain of a stage to see the props and actors waiting in the wings. Yet, crucially, Hatami\u2019s goal is not to diminish the magic of the original images, but to generate a new kind of magic \u2013 one that arises when the viewer\u2019s movement and perspective literally animate the artwork. In doing so, Hatami has developed what might be called a perspectival paradox: his sculptures grant Persian miniature painting a three-dimensional life, but only in order to show that true unity of vision is elusive and must be earned through active seeing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another captivating example of this perspectival paradox is Hatami\u2019s piece \u201cAfter Behzad.\u201d Drawing from a scene by Kamal al-Din Behzad \u2013 the legendary Persian miniaturist \u2013 Hatami recreates it with sheets of glass and intricate iron cut-outs, assembling a sculpture that is part painting, part architecture. In the original Behzad painting, The Building of the Palace of Khovarnaq, multiple activities unfold on different levels, depicted with Behzad\u2019s characteristic simultaneous perspective (a hallmark of Persian miniatures where numerous events and viewpoints coexist in a single frame). Hatami\u2019s sculptural homage takes this idea to a literal level: each \u201clevel\u201d of Behzad\u2019s scene is physically separated. Tiny iron figures of builders, courtiers, and stairways might occupy different glass layers in depth, like actors on separate stages. When the viewer finds the correct frontal position, these staggered elements align into Behzad\u2019s bustling composition, resurrecting a centuries-old moment of Persian history in perfect clarity. It\u2019s a breathtaking sight \u2013 as if the ghost of Behzad\u2019s image has crystallized in midair. However, move a few steps to the side and the spell breaks: the palace scatters into abstract forms and the narrative disperses. In this way, Hatami\u2019s \u201cAfter Behzad\u201d celebrates the complexity of the original art while also liberating it from the confines of flatness. The layers create a lively depth: one can almost imagine stepping into the space between them, traversing the arches or climbing the ladders depicted. The piece engages the viewer in a dance \u2013 approach, align, retreat, shift \u2013 turning the act of viewing into a physical exploration. It\u2019s a joyous, playful interaction, but also a deeply intellectual one, echoing Hatami\u2019s interest in how \u201cPersian painters\u2026 reflected their deep understanding of geometry, astronomy, and perspective\u201d within their ostensibly flat works . Hatami has, in effect, bottled that understanding into a tangible form, offering us a new theory of seeing: that every image, no matter how flat, contains multitudes and dimensions waiting to be unlocked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What Hatami achieves through these works is not only a tribute to Persian artistic heritage, but a bold innovation that feels almost sacred in its implications. His art suggests a convergence of the earthly and the divine. On one hand, the viewer is acutely aware of the earthly mechanics \u2013 the careful engineering, the precise angles, the material presence of iron and glass. On the other hand, when the image snaps into focus, there is an instant of transcendence. In that moment, Hatami\u2019s layered construction ceases to be an assembly of parts and becomes a living scene \u2013 a vision. This duality evokes the concept of the \u201cimaginal world\u201d in Persian philosophy: a realm where material reality and spiritual vision meet . Hatami\u2019s sculptures physically enact this meeting. They are like modern-day shrines to the act of seeing, where the pilgrimage is not to a holy site but to the correct point of view. And when one arrives at that point, the reward is a divine image fleetingly granted to the eyes. It is fitting that Hatami has experimented with optical illusions beyond Persian art as well \u2013 for instance, transforming Bruegel\u2019s Blind Leading the Blind into an anamorphic projection that only appears correctly in a cylindrical mirror . Such projects show Hatami\u2019s wide-ranging command of illusion and perspective. But it is in the realm of Persian miniatures that his work finds a particularly profound resonance. By breaking the traditional picture-plane into layers, he not only brings these historical images into the present but elevates them, offering a fresh vision that borders on the miraculous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a world saturated with flat screens and instantaneous images, Sharyar Hatami slows down the act of looking and reintroduces a sense of wonder. His sculptures ask viewers to engage, to find that one angle where scattered pieces unite into a story \u2013 and in doing so, they remind us that understanding requires effort and perspective. The reward for this effort, in Hatami\u2019s work, is a moment of visual enlightenment that feels almost divine. With each layered masterpiece, Hatami propounds a new theory of art that is both radically contemporary and deeply rooted in tradition: a theory in which painting and sculpture merge, where destruction is a path to creation, and where the truth of an image is not simply given but earned through the journey of seeing. This visionary approach positions Sharyar Hatami as a pioneer of a new artistic dimension, one where the seen and unseen, the past and present, and the earthly and the transcendent all converge in a single, breathtaking view.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a queit space, Sharyar Hatami\u2019s sculptures stand like puzzles of light and shadow. Each piece initially appears as a disjointed array of painted fragments suspended in air \u2013 metal silhouettes and glass panes arranged in layers. Yet, step directly in front of one, and a wondrous transformation occurs: the fragments coalesce into a single, … <\/p>\n