This series of nine diptych works on paper are based on a reframing of archaeological material from the vantage point of the Parsi queer diaspora. The process began with an exploration of archives—beginning from a broad range—that contained artifacts from Achaemenid Persia, particularly those which were excavated by European archaeological teams from the 19th and early-20th centuries. Most of these objects were taken to Europe and several are still at the Musée du Louvre in Paris; some are from the Oxus Treasure, which is a large finding of gold and precious metal-based Achaemenid findings, which are still at the British Museum; and a select few artifacts and architectural motifs cited in this series are from the National Museum of Iran (Tehran) and the present-day ruins of Persepolis (located in the Fars province of present-day Iran), which was destroyed by Alexander of Macedon in 330 BC.

Over the past seven years Katki has closely studied what remains of Achaemenid art: alongside these studies he has practiced the queer art of fabulation, through cues provided in elements of tangible narrative that are traceable in Zoroastrian decorative motifs, domestic and ceremonial artifacts, and the structural plans of Persepolis which has been repeatedly visited by him since his first field trip there in 2018.

The larger top panel features a highly chromatic rendering of the Hall of 100 Columns at Persepolis; while it lays in ruins in the middle of the arid Fars region of Iran today, this reimagined depiction of the ruin site queers the perspective of an imagined history, by placing around and within the composition various pools of verdant plant life and aquatic pools. The title of this diptych more directly cites the lower, long panel of schematised cypress trees trailing along a stairway at Persepolis (note: the swaying cypress from bas reliefs such as these are often claimed to be an early prototype of today’s better known paisley motif). The motion depicted in these trees is symbolic in Persian lore of the northern winds bringing with them destruction and loss—both, geologically as well as culturally—in the form of cold temperatures and European invasions.