Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian often grouped her work into series she called “families,” suggesting a familial affinity of form, dimensionality or structure between works in each group. First Family (2010) is...
Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian often grouped her work into series she called “families,” suggesting a familial affinity of form, dimensionality or structure between works in each group. First Family (2010) is a series of individual mirror-works, in which cut polygonal fragments of reverse-painted glass are arranged into kaleidoscopic compositions grounded on principles of Islamic geometry. Blending influence from Sufi architecture, Western minimalism, and classical Persian decoration, the series progresses through the multi-sided polygons in Euclidean geometry. Here, rigorous structure and repetition are the foundations of invention and limitless variation: each sculpture is anchored by a central linear shape (here, an Octagon), with outward-spanning spokes that extend towards a tessellation of form.