"The Lie of the Truth" Majedeh S. Shahvelayati. Acrylic on canvas, 140×100 cm. Photo (c) Lea Fabienne. 2025

The Lie of the Truth

Truth is never fixed, it bends, changes, and slips away from us as the world around it transforms. What we
see, what we believe, and what we perceive as real are not absolutes; rather, they are fleeting reflections of
the spaces they inhabit. This work invites the viewer into a dance of perception, where reality is in constant
motion.

The artwork, layered with symbolic red, blue, and green shapes, creates a world where colours intertwine, revealing and concealing forms as the light shifts. With every change in illumination, what was once visible fades, and what was hidden comes to life. This piece is not static; it breathes, evolving with its surroundings, mirroring how what we consider the truth of a person can so easily be altered and reshaped by the surrounding environment.

“At the beginning, there was error. Truth is one, but error proliferates. Man tracks it down & cuts it up into little pieces hoping to turn it into grains of truth. But the ultimate atom will always essentially be an error, a miscalculation.”
— René Daumal, The Lie of the Truth (1980)

Fact Box