The most striking aspect of the paintings of artist Alireza Darvish (b. 1968) is the use of symbolism, although the “symbolism” itself is subject to change and redefinition in his works. Whereas in his earlier illustrations, images and recurring elements are used as symbols and representatives of something “forbidden” or even “impossible” (Figures 12.1, 12.2), they gradually turn into subject matter in their own right in his later works (Figure 12.3). Darvish, starting his artistic career at the dawn of the Islamic Republic (after 1979) with its unwelcome restrictions forcefully imposed on society and felt painfully by all those who had a calling for expressing themselves, had to take refuge like others in a world of the permissible to express the nonpermissible. The symbol “fish” became a substitute for women, sensuality and female productivity (Figure 12.4), elephants for resilience, steadfastness and looking for a way to survive, and books for the essence of life – knowledge and information (Figures 12.5, 12.7).

Time and again, Darvish has used his own symbols to express not only the forbidden, but also to challenge and criticize the act of forbidding. Whereas certain books are not allowed to be published and read, and thus ideas remain unexpressed, his images set forth to challenge this silence. Lips are sewn, and book covers bear stitches. Whereas movements are controlled, mobility and travelling are restricted and particular gatherings are considered to crimes, the desire to move and flee creeps under the scales of fishes to slip out of sight to the depth of freedom – swift and fast.