In Paria #1, Armajani’s revolutionary anger is expressed through his quotation of lines by the
poet Ahmad Shamlou (1925–2000), which are written in the vernacular below a floating image of
the Archangel Gabriel. The artist first roughly copied and then painstakingly traced over the text in an act that seems to transcribe it once again in the artist’s hand, as though the poem were his. It
also recalls the use of copying as a way of remembering and honouring the work, and tracing as
a physical and almost reverent gesture. The gesture of a trace that also erases recurs across
decades of the artist’s practice.
Persian fairy tales and poetry comingle in Armajani’s Paria No. 1 (1957) (p. 23). Here, the artist
copied a poem by Ahmad Shamlou by hand, emphatically tracing over the verses again and
again, ultimately rendering the text illegible. The artistic gesture both obscures and
reveals layered meanings by turning text, itself, into form. The work is also a poetic engagement
with Shamlou, who drew on literary ambiguity in his poetry by using fairy tales as a device for
social commentary. Here, Armajani introduces figural elements, depicting
the Archangel Gabriel in ink and watercolour.