News 05 Oct 2026
A Look at the Works of Omid Bonakdar at the Zoorkhaneh Daneshpour Gallery – Kashan News
Kashan News examines Omid Bonakdar’s works at Zoorkhaneh Daneshpour Gallery, where golden cypress forms on Iranian handwoven textiles connect cultural memory, endurance and renewal.
Kashan News has published a review of works by filmmaker and visual artist Omid Bonakdar presented at Zoorkhaneh Daneshpour Gallery in Kashan.
Written by Amirabbas Mohandes, the article considers Bonakdar’s recurring image of the cypress as more than a decorative motif. Painted in gold across Iranian handwoven textiles, primarily carpets, the tree becomes a carrier of collective memory, cultural continuity and the complex relationship between life and history.
The Cypress as a Witness to History
Since antiquity, the cypress has occupied a distinctive place in mythology, ritual and visual culture. Its evergreen character and upright form have allowed it to signify endurance, longevity and immortality across different traditions.
The tree can also carry associations with mourning and the world beyond life. Its presence in cemeteries, together with its lasting greenery, evokes both death and continuation. The symbolism is therefore never singular: the cypress can simultaneously represent grief, rebirth, steadfastness and hope for the future.
Within Iranian culture, this symbolic history has particular depth. From the legendary Cypress of Kashmar to the cypresses of Manjil and the historic trees of Fin Garden in Kashan, the image belongs to both cultural memory and the physical landscape.
Golden Trees on Iranian Textiles
Bonakdar places golden cypress forms on the surfaces of Iranian handwoven textiles. This combination is neither incidental nor merely ornamental. Both the tree and the textile are rooted in shared cultural experience, carrying histories that extend beyond their immediate appearance.
The gold-painted cypresses enter into a dialogue with the patterns, fibres and traces of use already present in the woven surfaces. Rather than treating the carpet as a neutral background, the works allow its material history to participate in their meaning.
The result connects two forms of cultural inheritance: an enduring natural symbol and an artistic tradition shaped through collective labour. Their combination recalls values and memories that may remain active even when they have been pushed into less visible areas of contemporary consciousness.
Painting as a Cultural Manifesto
A painting can be approached through colour, light, shadow and subject, but these formal elements are ultimately instruments through which the artist articulates a broader position. Bonakdar’s cypresses can therefore be read as a visual manifesto concerned with preservation, neglect, survival and renewal.
The historical cypress has often been honoured, yet it has also suffered acts of destruction and indifference. The fate of the Cypress of Kashmar and the vulnerability of historic trees in places such as Fin Garden complicate the symbol. Endurance is not presented as something guaranteed; it depends on recognition, care and cultural responsibility.
Between Poetic Contemplation and Criticism
Bonakdar’s symbolic trees invite a contemplative encounter. Their unrestricted forms recall Eastern traditions of symbolism and, at moments, the poetic clarity associated with Zen painting. Yet their apparent stillness does not make them silent or passive.
The works move between mystical reflection and cultural criticism. They celebrate vitality while drawing attention to what can be forgotten, damaged or lost. Like branches rising towards light, their forms suggest an impulse to continue despite the pressures of history.
Through these cypresses, Bonakdar brings the past into an active relationship with contemporary life. His works do not treat tradition as a closed archive. Instead, they reveal it as a living structure capable of generating new questions, emotions and interpretations.
A Quiet but Persistent Voice
Omid Bonakdar’s works at Zoorkhaneh Daneshpour Gallery communicate through a familiar cultural symbol transformed by material, colour and context. The cypress remains calm and upright, but it is never mute.
These trees become witnesses: to centuries of cultural continuity, to moments of neglect and to the persistent possibility of renewal. Their golden presence carries both joy and reflection, inviting viewers to reconsider the histories woven into the landscapes and objects around them.
Source: “A Look at the Works of Omid Bonakdar at Zoorkhaneh Daneshpour Gallery,” written by Amirabbas Mohandes and published by Kashan News on November 14, 2025.