Yassi Mazandi: Language of the Birds

This kinetic sculptural work takes its name and theme from a twelfth-century Persian epic poem by Farid
al-Din ‘Attar. The text is a parable of a mystical quest for God, a spiritual home, or even our own highest
good, undertaken by a group of one hundred birds seeking a worldly ruler—the mythical Simurgh. Many
of the birds perish along the way until just thirty remain, only to realize that they themselves are the
Simurgh (in Persian si murgh means “thirty birds”).

The bird sculptures are stark, abstract forms cast in bronze, suspended from the north side of the
Resnick Pavilion. Stripped of their feathers, Mazandi’s dramatic birds in flight carry with them a
multiplicity of meanings. They not only evoke ‘Attar’s powerful mystical poem, which universalizes the
quest for meaning in life, but call to mind global warming, a key contemporary issue, and the ways in
which it threatens many avian species and contributes to human migration and the often-dangerous
journey and inhospitable reception these immigrants face.

Audio content coming soon.