This is a collection of 9 illustrations made for Moody Moussavi's album "Oryan". when we first discussed the art style, Moody explained to me that his music has a touch of oriental melodies that would fit such visuals. All the lyrics of each song are excerpted from Baba Taher Oryan's poetry. I did not include the accurate poem Moody chose for each song but I managed to gather a few short poems of Baba Taher in English to reflect the atmosphere of the album. The concept of the album is about resistance towards "fate" and picturing it as an evil oppressor. even though there are mentions of faith and God in the poems, one notices a strong sense of absurdity in pain and suffering of life. the narrator (the poet/singer) is sometimes defeated by fate and the other times is rebelling against it. Love is mentioned in the poems as a means of both saving and adding to the narrator's misery. I took the liberty of picturing "love" as the woman who keeps saving the man by fighting the golden threads of fate and eventually tearing them apart. The woman somehow steals the narrative from the man and makes her own story in the album artworks.
- Gardoon :
(Wheels of destiny)
"Black is my lot, my fortune's overturned, Ruined are my fortunes, for my luck is brought low; A thorn, a thistle I, on the Mountain of Love, For my heart's sake. Drown it in blood, O Lord!"
Baba Taher Oryan (translated by Elizabeth Curtis Brenton)