Monir’s mixed media works from the 1970s and 80s, reveal her desire to experiment with forms beyond pure geometry and draw upon both the natural world and a wide array...
Monir’s mixed media works from the 1970s and 80s, reveal her desire to experiment with forms beyond pure geometry and draw upon both the natural world and a wide array of Persian cultural influences. These works on paper are depictions of chadors–tents built by Persian nomads. The chadors are graphic distillations of these temporary architectural structures; hand-drawn, collaged, and recomposed versions of the "Siyah Chador" (black tent) pitched by tribes throughout Iran. Her kinetic mixed media works, which contain swooping Farsi letters in colorful lines and miniature forms, suggest overlapping flaps of a tent blowing in a breeze on an expansive empty terrain.