Cows have always been interesting for me, both in visual terms as well as symbolic, and the meaning behind their presence in different cultures. Large head and body, glorious and solid as a mountain, with two horns adding to the majesty of this iconic image. In different ethnicities cows are symbols of abundance, blessing, greatness, and particularly in Iran a symbol of growth, life, nature and fertility. Gavaevodata is one of Ahurzamazda’s six primordial material creations and the mythological progenitor of all beneficent animal life. Their image is carved in to bass reliefs of Ancient Persia and are repeatedly referred to in poetry and holy books, and even in Divination and dream interpretations. In 2021 draught at Hour Al Azim Marshlands in Khuzestan Provence, caused the deaths of numerous legendry water buffalos of the region. The catastrophic images of their stone like dead bodies in rivers and the marshland, was the inception point for this series of works. This exhibition is about these wondrous creatures that because of mismanagement, incompetence and indifference, were lost to us. A tribute to life and a requiem in condemnation of this bitter event. Let us hope that we can avoid a day in future, that we might only have relics, made of stone and metal, to remind us of nature and its creatures.

Koosha Moossavi