Red Heech

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“Red Heech” by Parviz Tanavoli, 2001
Queen Elizabeth II Great Court
The British Museum
Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury
London, January 2008

“The foremost Iranian artist Parviz Tanavoli was a founder member of ‘Saqqakhaneh’, a term coined for an artistic movement that began in Iran during the 1960s and which sought to integrate popular symbols of Shi'a culture in art - a ‘spiritual Pop Art’, as it has been described. He has long been inspired by the word ‘heech’ - meaning ‘nothing’ - which he has created in numerous and ever more ambitious forms. It has been said that the word symbolises for him both an ambivalence towards the past and a sense of meaninglessness or dissatisfaction with an inadequate present. The letter forms are in the traditional Persian ‘nasta'liq’ script (Porter 2008, 57).” (Red Heech, The British Museum)