Description: A political-philosophical protest piece reflecting on mourning and reverence in a land where faith and death intertwine. A prayer stone crowns the grave-marker, sanctifying death, while the base resembles a silent cemetery.
The piece Republic of Graves constructs, through minimal yet loaded elements, a stark metaphor: in this land, death is not a personal matter, but a national condition. A simple grave culminates in a wooden sign, bearing a clay prayer stone engraved with the map of Iran — an unsettling fusion of identity, mortality, and ideology.
Crafted from raw, untreated materials, the sculpture exudes a quiet brutality. There is no ornamentation — just coarse wooden planks forming a grave, and a religious seal presiding above it. But rather than offering comfort, the seal becomes a symbol of control and dominance. The work suggests a space where death is regulated, sanctified, and politicized — a republic not of citizens, but of graves. A land of mourning masquerading as a nation
