Sofia Pashaei, A flower doesn't have a backside, 2023

In “ A flower doesn’t have a backside” I draw inspiration from Iranian culture and customs. Being brought up in Sweden by Iranian parents, a lot of the customs were lost on me or learnt along the way. One of the customs I learnt early on was not to sit with my back against someone in gatherings, especially not the elderly. I vividly remember this one dinner party my parents held when I was young when I accidentally sat with my back against one of my parents friends' grandmother who was visiting from Iran. I quickly realized my mistake and apologized with my limited Iranian language skills. She looked at me and said “Don’t worry dear, a flower doesn’t have a backside”. The Iranian language has a lot of these poetic idioms inspired by nature. Who is to say which side of a flower is the front or back? It always made me wonder why these idioms were so cleverly pointing out the core in human interaction but how we anyway got stuck in these customs that could easily alienate and create unnecessary drama. In this painting we have two figures who fearlessly have their backs against each other while completely mesmerized by the flowers (nature). - Sofia Pashaei

"LUSH" Group Exhibition

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Sofia Pashaei