The Thirty Birds is Mazandi’s interpretation of the ending of ‘Attar’s poem describing the epiphanic realization of the surviving birds at their journey’s end: they are the Simurgh (literally “30 birds” in Persian). Through the medium of AR, Mazandi renders the birds as if they are in a dream state when they reach that moment of truth. The work also calls to mind today’s key issue of climate change, which affects avian species and humans alike.
Composition by Loga Ramin Torkian
Lens Creator: BLNK
This initiative is made possible by Snapchat. Major support for the initiative is provided by the Mellon Foundation.
Yassi Mazandi, The Thirty Birds, 2023, in collaboration with LACMA × Snapchat: Monumental Perspectives, © Yassi Mazandi, image by JF Chen
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About the Artist Yassi Mazandi
Yassi Mazandi was born in Iran, raised in England and lives and works in Los Angeles. She describes nature and her reaction to it, both conscious and subconscious, as the driving forces behind her art. Self-taught, she sculpts in porcelain, clay and bronze, and also creates works on paper and canvas. She enjoys constant experimentation, including combining traditional hand-intensive skills with relevant technological innovations. In recent years, she completed her first video artwork, NFT and AR artworks. Her work has been the subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions, as well as a video interview with the BBC. She was in the first group selected by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation for its Artist in Residence program. Her work is in the collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, University of California and in other public and major private collections both in the United States and internationally.
www.lacma.org/...
About LACMA × Snapchat: Monumental Perspectives
Monumental Perspectives brings together artists and technologists to create augmented reality monuments that explore just some of the histories of Los Angeles communities in an effort to highlight perspectives from across the region. In consultation with community leaders and historians, the third and final cohort of artists, Victoria Fu, Yassi Mazandi, Rashaad Newsome, Rubén Ortiz Torres, and Alison Saar, use the lens of collective ancestral memory to examine the individual and communal legacies we leave today.
www.lacma.org/...
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About LACMA
Located on the Pacific Rim, LACMA is the largest art museum in the western United States, with a collection of nearly 152,000 objects that illuminate 6,000 years of artistic expression across the globe. Committed to showcasing a multitude of art histories, LACMA exhibits and interprets works of art from new and unexpected points of view that are informed by the region’s rich cultural heritage and diverse population. LACMA’s spirit of experimentation is reflected in its work with artists, technologists, and thought leaders as well as in its regional, national, and global partnerships to share collections and programs, create pioneering initiatives, and engage new audiences.
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