Heech (Nothingness)

The mid-1960s creative scene in Iran frustrated Parviz Tanavoli. Iran embraced, he believed, West-based derivative artistic phenomena. Tanavoli responded to the dilemma by creating the Heech (Persian for nothingness) sculptures. First, he decided to give up calligraphy or, better yet, confine himself to one written word. Eventually, he focused on the phrase ‘heech’. For Tanavoli, emptiness was the expression of the possibilities of existence rather than the lack of hope. One interpretation of Sufi belief is that 'nothing' is a feature of God, who generates everything from nothing. The sculpture comprises three Farsi characters using the Nasta’liq popular Persian calligraphy technique. Combining the three letters he, Ye, and če generates the word ‘heech’. Tanavoli identified this concept with creativity: the void filled by the artist's imagination, the nothing that, employing his carving and sculpting, becomes everything. Heech takes the observer on a spiritual journey, simultaneously renewing the fundamental ideas of life and nothingness and standing alone as a majestic figure.