Hoard of Achaemenids Series

The “Achaemenid” collection depicts Sahabi’s critical view of imagery that has been used to create meaning in historical narratives. It is as if Sahabi is trying to criticize the historical narrative by juxtaposing paper forms with images made of hard material. By making compositions out of two materials, paper and stone, Sahabi seems to create a new narrative that sets the viewer’s previous impressions in parentheses. In some of these artworks, crumpled pieces of paper and cardboard are seen next to an icon of an Achaemenid king. The illegible text on the cardboard presents a new version of inscriptions, but this time they are on paper instead of stone. And this is Mehdi Sahabi's mission for history in this collection: a consensus of opposites.

Sohrab Ahmadi