The King of Black (25 min., 2013), Azari defies the boundaries between two- and three-dimensional media by treating his projection screen as a standalone canvas rife with imagery that references classic Persian and Orientalist painting, accompanied by text and audio components reminiscent of Western silent films. Based on a chapter from the learned Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi’s Haft Paykar or Seven Beauties (1197), an epic which explores timeless, universal themes involving the impossible quest for perfection and limitations of the ego, The King of Black chronicles Sassanid King Bahram V’s journey for self-knowledge; a Paradise found and lost. Through staged live action set against tableaus largely formed from digitally reconstructed 16th- century Persian miniature paintings rendered in hyper-saturated hues, Azari conveys the Islamic conception of Heaven as both extraordinary, enchanted, and yet, merely an illusion.