But a Storm Is Blowing from Paradise

Rokni Haerizadeh couches political messages in skillfully executed paintings, drawings, and collages. Since 2009, he has painted directly onto photographs, often transforming news images into satirical scenes populated by surreal animal-human hybrids, citing Persian mythology as one inspiration. In But a Storm Is Blowing from Paradise, Haerizadeh paints on printed stills of YouTube videos and television news broadcasts of events in the Middle East and North Africa. The results are grotesque abstractions of ubiquitous contemporary images that point to the originals’ untrustworthy status. The title, which is taken from a description of Paul Klee’s 1920 print Angelus Novus written by Walter Benjamin, is consistent with the work’s piquant fusion of emotion and critique.