Born to Gallop – Trained to Carry :: 2025 (Subseries)
Acrylic on canvas
50×60 cm
Amir Taba
The “Born to Gallop, Trained to Carry” series is about the gap between who we hope to become and what we end up being shaped into—by others, by systems, or by ourselves. Someone who wanted to become a horse—strong, graceful, admired—but, along the way, became something else: a pack horse, donkey, a fool, or simply someone carrying the weight of other people’s expectations. The costume, ears, and expression all speak to that strange mix of pride, disappointment, and quiet endurance. This piece is part of a continuing reflection in my work on how identity can be shaped or misshaped and how, sometimes, even our dreams can take on a tragic or absurd shape when filtered through the world around us.
Dissonant Harmony :: 2025
Acrylic on canvas
120×150 cm
Amir Taba
Dissonant Harmony is a reflection on how transformation often feels—messy, uncertain, and full of contradiction. The work explores what happens when different parts of ourselves, or even different identities and forces, come together without fully fitting.
It’s about the push and pull between holding on and letting go, between resisting change and being shaped by it. Some elements in the painting suggest effort or struggle, while others feel like they’ve surrendered. In the end, they exist together in a fragile balance.
This piece doesn’t try to offer answers. Instead, it invites the viewer to sit with that discomfort to consider how identity can shift, and how tension and harmony might coexist in ways that aren’t always obvious.
The Sudden Resurrection :: 2025
Acrylic on canvas
216×180 cm
Amir Taba
Transformation is never simple. We are taught to evolve, to become better, stronger, freer—but what if that journey is not what we imagined? What if, instead of rising into something noble, we become burdened creatures, suffocated souls, or hollow shells of what we were meant to be?
This painting is about those struggles—the ones we inherit, the ones we impose on ourselves, and the ones we don’t fully understand until it’s too late. The central figures represent different fates: one meant to be a horse, reduced to a pack animal; another gasping for breath, bound by unseen forces; and one caught mid-transformation, yearning to become
something more but never quite reaching it.
The title, “The Sudden Resurrection,” comes from a poem by Rumi, a
reminder that even in struggle, there is the possibility of awakening. But resurrection is not always graceful—it can be painful, incomplete, or
absurd. It can be a forced evolution rather than a liberation.
I invite you to see yourself in these figures. Where are you in your own transformation? Are you free, or are you carrying a weight you never chose?