The objects
These five sculptured earthenware blossoms with their brilliant
orange-red glazes recall the poppies of Lar Valley in Iran. They
are an artwork by ceramicist Maryam Salour. Pottery is a craft with
a long and rich tradition in Iranian history. Deeply rooted in the
place of her origin, Salour chose the poppies to express her
intimate view of the country’s beauty. 
Above: Group of five ceramic poppies. Click on the image to zoom
in on the poppies to see them in detail.
The artist’s inspiration
Not far from Iran’s bustling capital Tehran,
the Lar Valley is situated, enclosed into the steep rugged rocks of
the Elburz Mountains and overlooked by the legendary snow-capped
Damavand peak. Where the Lar River cuts into the slopes, and
crosses the plains the dry hillsides turn green, intermingled with
the colours of seasonal flowers.
This landscape inspired Maryam Salour’s
ceramic poppies. She remembers the moment when she reached the
valley on a walking tour in 2005:
“I found myself exposed not just to a normal
valley, but to a field of thousands of stunning fiery red poppies.
The mesmerizing scenery that was laid out so beautifully before me,
very gradually and I must say unconsciously, lifted me up and flew
me into it.
“I can’t tell how long it took me to become
myself again, but when I came back from this astonishing journey, I
realized that I wasn’t standing there looking at them from above
anymore, but my soul had become one of them and was amongst them; I
had become a poppy.” (2011)
Making the
poppies
When Maryam Salour was planning her work for the Eighth Ceramic
and Glass Biennial of Iran in 2006, she could not think of anything
more fascinating than reviving the valley of poppies, to share her
experience with the audience.
But how to recall the poppies of Lar?
Above: Each of the poppies is different. Click
on the thumbnails to see a larger image.
Fire, earth, water and air – they are not only
the four classical elements, but also a potter’s basic materials.
Working on the potter’s wheel, Maryam Salour formed the body of the
poppies out of a lump of white clay before she cut the upper part
freely in petals.
As there are no two similar blossoms in
nature, Maryam Salour varied the bodies – reaching from flattened
to bulbous ones, with constricted or heavily curved petals. Through
the oil-spot effect of her bright orange-red glazes, producing a
fine net of leaf-veins, she added texture to the surface. In this
way, her sculptures evoke the poppies as they bloom and fade.
Above: Oil spot effect (left) and calyx of one
of the poppies (right). Click on the images to see a larger
version.
Maryam Salour is preoccupied with the
metamorphosis of the mineral world. The clay, turning into ceramic
during the process of firing, reminds her of these processes of
change in nature. The outcome of the overlay of thickly applied
glazes – uneven surfaces, pinholes, bubbles and craters – is left
to the unpredictability of fundamental forces.
Contemporary Iranian art
Flowers are common motifs in Iranian art to
decorate the surface of objects. Usually embedded in foliage they
appear in all media – carved in wood and stone, woven into textiles
or painted onto ceramic tiles.
Above: Click on the objects below to see these motifs in
more detail.
When she formed the poppies, Maryam Salour
transformed a traditionally two-dimensional motif into sculptures.
Modelling elements of surface decoration in the round is a feature
of contemporary Iranian art. You can see another recently acquired
modern artwork, a sculpture by Parviz Tanavoli, one of Iran’s most
renowned artists, on display in Artistic Legacies gallery. With
this fibreglass cast ‘Standing Heech’, Tanavoli (born 1937) gave
space and movement to Persian script.
Above: ‘Standing Heech’ (edition 18/25), by
Parviz Tanavoli, 2007. Acquired with the support of Charles Pocock
and Meem Gallery.