In this collection of works, Hassanzadeh takes his engagement with the popular forms and visual imagination of Iran into ceramics. ‘Haft Khan’ is the first time the artist has worked on ceramic tile forms of this scale, and makes reference to the abundance of such tiling in Iran. It is found in sulphurous blue hue on the domes of mosques, or sprawling mosaic-like interiors with an undulating weave of crisp forms and floral patterns. Here, Hassanzadeh composes eight ‘canvases’ of blue ceramic tiles. Together, the eight works form a painted fresco where broad-shouldered Pahlavan wrestlers stand alongside characters absorbed from the pages of old Persia’s illuminated manuscripts. To understand the importance of Pahlavans, it’s vital to go back to the roots of the Persian imagination. The Shahnameh, the 11th century epic poem by Ferdowsi, tells the story of pre-Islamic Persia, with its rival kings, everpresent wars and heroes touched by the divine. Rostam, a Herculean figure in the poem, could almost be the Shahnameh’s protagonist. His ‘seven trials’ sit at the heart of the poem and are entwined in Iranian phraseology (as the name of this show, ‘Haft Khan’, refers to), synonymous with notions of valour, courage and chivalry. The wrestler became, for these reasons, the embodiment of Rostam in the lives of Iranians. Hassanzadeh talks about the role these powerfully built yet spiritually disciplined sportsmen would play in the community – a sort of village elder for each neighbourhood, offering advice and help to all who came to their ‘zoorkhaneh’ (wrestling gym). Hassanzadeh recreates the faded patina of aging photographs of these Pahlavans on his ceramic ‘canvases’. The smaller, more intricate, figures alongside the wrestlers have been lifted from the art of Persian miniature painting, used to illuminate poetry such as the Shahnameh. This combined imagery represents the shared adoration of Iranians for wrestlers and the sentiments of the epic poems that gave Iran its national identity. Yet the title of these works, ‘Haft Khan’, and its relationship with the trials of Rostam, sets a tone for Hassanzadeh’s work. As Iran faces its recent upheavals, the struggle that ‘Haft Khan’ implies is pointed to. By placing the pieces on tiles, synonymous with the decoration found in mosques, he makes reference to an almost devotional struggle for the Pahlavan ideals of freedom, chivalry and righteous code of conduct that can be found in the people of contemporary Iran.