Nina Papaconstantinou (b. 1968, Athens, Greece) studied Greek Literature in Athens and Visual Arts: Drawing at Camberwell College of Arts in London. In 2015, she was artist-in-residence at the Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies in Princeton, the USA. Her work is mainly an investigation of the relationship between marks, texts, and textures. In her text-based work, she approaches text as an image. She has presented her works in several group and solo exhibitions in Greece and abroad.

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In “The Yellow Dome,” the work inspired by Haft Paykar, I have carved, with a carving knife on a handmade Japanese paper, the text of a dialog between the prince and the slave he wants to seduce. My aim is to comment in a literal way on the concept of honesty, which the prince believes should govern the relationship between a man and his wife. The text is carved in a way that leaves small holes in the places of letters, which allows the light to come through when it is lit in a certain way. This relates to the pleasure and light cast upon their love when they are truthful to one another. A knife can be a writing tool but also a dangerous weapon. Therefore, the very materials I use to transcribe the text—a carving knife on handmade paper—allude to the pain that comes along with falling in love, and this aims to comment on the trick the prince plays on the slave in order to bring out the truth and make her abandon her claim that she will suffer death if she mates.