By defamiliarizing elements from my past and present, “Unknown Stones” attempts to disrupt the passive complacency of the viewers and refresh their habitual perception to force them into a state of shock and simultaneously critical analysis of the spaces we move through. The shocking juxtapositions behind the quiet and peaceful scenes on the surface in my paintings evoke aftermath or preludes; moments when incidents have just happened or are about to happen.

I do not use landscape to merely inspire the viewer through aesthetic perception but rather as a semiotic system in which I explore interrelationships, rhetorical effects and generate new ways of addressing sociopolitical issues.landscape and garden elements emerge at times from my memories of Persian gardens and belong to Iran’s visual heritage, and at other times are inspirations from my current surrounding.