I was first drawn to the colors and the circular patterns of Hadieh Shafie’s work when I first saw it.

Hadieh Shafie website homepage

There is an exhibit of her work, Ritual: Form, Script, Gesture, through the Popup Art Project in a gallery space just off the lobby of the Artery Building in Bethesda through December 18th. I hope I get a chance to see it. Scheduling is tight with the holidays.

I like her work for the color, paper medium, abstract pattern, hidden meaning, popup-3-dimensional nature, op-art style and the tremedous time involved to produce it.

The article, Paperpatterncolorculture by Emily Warner on the Brooklyn Rail is pretty descriptive. Honestly, if these works are meant to be scriptural, I do not see it. The text is so hidden that the meaning, if this is the case, is hidden as well and Ms. Warner makes a good argument of this. I am more taken with their abstract nature. At the same time I wouldn’t go so far to say that these works are representational of  what divides us either.

The scroll paintings are a case in point: peering at them up close, the bits of phrases peeking out along the trunks, or half-submerged in inky dyes, convey not so much transcendence as someone else’s search for it, the visual remainders of an interiority we’ll never grasp. For all their preoccupation with the divine, these works underscore most strongly the stakes of being human and the boundaries that seal us off from one another.

Hadie Shafie via Brooklyn Rail

Hadie Shafie via Brooklyn Rail

Go to her website to see many more works that are equally as fascinating as these.

Also, here are some previous posts on:

• Paper art, particularly quilling, which this essentially is but there is no mention of it in the process.

• Popup art, some of my favorite fun artwork.

• Mod Op-Art Style on Slipcovers for your walls.

Now, let’s Kick Start the Weekend with a more subdued than normal but beautiful cover piano piece from the movie American Beauty. I can just visualize that paper bag dancing around. I don’t know why I always loved that scene — maybe because there is a natural force to it that cannot be explained.