“Under Preceding Trees” is the result of my recent explorations in the idea of the Persian Garden, with a special focus on Safavid (1501-1736) and Qajar (1789-1925) periods. Unlike my previous series “Bygone Glory” which concentrated on the depiction of the elements of the Persian Garden, in the recent works I have omitted human-made elements and instead imagined myself in situations to remember things that I have never actually seen. For this act of remembrance, I have visited what is left of those gardens, photographed and documented them, reviewed older images, compared them to related texts from the period, especially travelogues, and have thus tried to portray the past. I believe one of the shared aspects in remembering something and in reviewing its history is the vague image that is created in our minds. The blurry trees painted in this series are an allusion to the same effect and the murkiness of the past. The exhibition of “Under Preceding Trees” includes three components: paintings of trees, flower paintings, and an audiovisual installation.​​​​​​​