Sahar Ghavami Guardian (1) (2022)

framed: 50h × 40w cm

Acrylic on canvas

This piece emerges from a dream: a dog hunting a bird, and the desperate need to intervene, to place oneself between vulnerability and harm. The instinct to protect what cannot protect itself extends beyond waking life, resurfacing here through the compositional structure. It is carried into the body of the painting, where barberry flowers stain the chest, seeping upward through hair and neck, shifting as they move: wound becoming bloom, bloom becoming ladybug, pain gradually transforming into something that takes flight. The golden animal looms close, as a counterpart, suggesting that the same primal force that hunts may also protect, depending on position and perception. The work aligns with Ghavami’s broader practice, where dream-like states function as sites of reconfiguration. Her compositions unfold through a continuous logic in which forms do not conclude but transition. Boundaries between human, animal, and environment remain permeable: a gesture of holding may dissolve into fur or skin, while bodies merge into surrounding space without rupture. Within this framework, protection arises from within these shifting relations, where roles of guardian and aggressor remain fluid.