A painting can be a narrative itself, or an act of story-telling. But it scarcely happens that a painting is a sparkle starting a story. Despite what one expects of its genre, i.e. neo-expressionism with figurative tendencies, this painting by Maryam Iranpanah attempts neither at accommodating a preconceived narrative, nor describe an era through a personal filter. The momentary interpretation of the painting is actually very much associated with these qualities. In contact with its viewer, the painting tends to be conceived as a pure abstract artwork; every moment that sight catches a bit of the work, the mind experiences a chaos eager to match the seen with something experienced before. Eventually, the viewer may recall some similar feelings and moods, but the experience stays attached to this mere action of viewing shaping an original starting point. Though watching this painting in particular, does not start with standing in front of it, rather the picture demonstrates itself with the paradox of bursting out of the surface of the wall, still remaining still in the frame of the painting: slightly fading shadows around the unframed canvas are the only resistance of the wall against the will of letting the shivery forms go. After reaching the two swans in the foreground–causing dizziness and fear by reflecting the wittiness of their cliche lovemaking on the shoes and socks of the figure– and the grotesque and romantic stone/plant-like mass –which makes the girl crawl back while being embraced–we face the two swans on top whose incompletely painted heads not only prevents the image from bursting out, but through their similarity with Zahhak’s snakes, seems to be the ultimate terror under the skin of the image. Little by little, we should be able to hear the laughter coming from the depth of the painting: the girl fixes her eyes on us, turning her neck and head slightly, the right hand of the monkey doll moves away from the girl’s ear, and now we see her listening. She has witnessed us watching and talking; we have been toyed with.
