About the work:

Inspired by The Book of Kings, or Shahnameh, these contextually charged artworks suggest temporal linkages; a renewed, digitised interpretation of an age-old Epic Poem. Written by native poet Ferdowsi between c. 977 and 1010 CE, the Shahnameh is the national epic of Iran and recounts a Persian golden age via some 50,000 ‘distichs’ or couplets. This work attests a preservation of mythologies and histories that here lend Dawes’ work an arcane and scholarly agency. Dynasties flows through imagined, dream-like Persian palaces populated by regal figures.

About the music:

This piece captures the deep sense of history and the passage of time within the Shahnameh. Voices from the local bazar invite you down an unending vortex as an overarching voice sings from the nearby zoorkhoone (heroic sport), reciting passages from the shahnameh as part of their ritual.