Damask Rose II by Afsaneh Moslehi
Explore Mondoir Studio
Medium: Acrylic, silver leaf, texture on canvas
Dimensions: 90 x 90 cm
Year: 2025
Price: $2150.00 USD
Status: available
Damask Rose II continues the exploration of the rose as a vessel of memory, language, and inner multiplicity. Set against a reflective silver ground, the roses appear almost suspended between image and inscription, nature and mirror, softness and permanence. The background carries subtle engraved calligraphic traces, creating the feeling of a hidden language beneath the surface — like memories, prayers, or echoes that can only be seen when the light changes. Each rose is built from layered petals, and within each petal, calligraphy becomes a quiet internal pattern. The script does not simply decorate the flower; it gives each petal its own voice, rhythm, and emotional presence. The different blooms suggest different stages of becoming — opening, unfolding, and still holding something within. Through the contrast between the delicate pink roses, deep green leaves, and reflective mirror-like surface, the work speaks about beauty as something layered and alive. It is a garden of written fragments, where language grows like a flower and reflection becomes part of the story.
Why collect this work?
Three open roses and a closed bud interrupt a dense field of looping marks, making growth appear less botanical than linguistic: each bloom seems assembled from lines that could be read as writing or ornament.
- The artist’s profile identifies calligraphy, geometry, and reflection as recurring concerns. Here, script-like curves move from the silver field into the petals, loosening the boundary between figure and ground.
- In the photograph, vivid pink contours compress the layered petals while dark leaves anchor the circular composition. The cropped upper bloom and diagonally placed bud prevent the floral arrangement from settling into symmetry.
- Catalogued as acrylic, silver leaf, and texture on canvas, the medium sets opaque colour against a metallic ground. Silver leaf can register changing light, although the photograph cannot establish the work’s actual reflectivity or surface relief.
- The painting is particularly useful for considering when writing stops functioning as legible text and becomes pictorial structure. Its roses hold that ambiguity at both the scale of individual petals and the whole field.
About the Artist
Afsaneh Moslehi
Afsaneh Moslehi is an artist on Mondoir Studio. Artistic discipline: painting. Based in Muscat, OM.
Nationality: Iranian
My work explores the relationship between nature, geometry, and human expression.
