The Freezing of Melancholic Ruins: A Psychological Analysis of Themes in Iran Darroudi's Third Period of Artworks

Between the 1970s to 1980s, the “Freezing Period” is one of the most prominent periods in Iran Darroudi's career. "Loss" is a recurring themes of the works of this period. This paper intendsed to shed light on an aspect of the latent content in these artworks using a psychological approach and theoretically expanding two concepts: "mourning" and "melancholia."

This paper gives a psychological interpretation of how “loss-related” forms and themes have been applied in Iran Darroudi's Third Period of artworks.

This paper is a descriptive-analytical investigation of form and theme in the artworks ofIran Darroudi in the Third Period, from the late '70s to '80s. The study used the library approach for data collection.

Darroudi's works in the "freezing period" present an interwoven embodiment of personal losses (the death of loved ones) and social-historical losses (lost glory of the homeland), and the artist has visualized her desire to preserve and immortalize the lost object in various forms. The image of "ruins" on an eternal horizon, the predominant element in Darroudi's works in this era, gives robust references to "homeland" and representation of "losing" it. The artist has tried to "immortalize" and "eternalize" the lost objects by freezing forms behind a curtain of ice. These representations involve streaks ofarchaism discourse remaining from the Pahlavi era as well as the effect of the death of loved ones, self-exile, and the imposed war with Iraq in the 1980s. The recurrence of the attachment between the concepts of "death," "ruins," "homeland," "eternalness," and "eternity" in the context of these artworks implies some sort of "melancholic mourning." In this regard, Darroudi's works in the Freezing Period can be interpreted as in line with the embodiment of a type of "aesthetics of loss".