Known primarily for his monumental trompe l’oeil-style murals in central Iran, Mehdi Ghadyanloo’s surrealist-inspired public murals depict dreamlike landscape and science fiction scenes. which are vastly different from the state favoured, heroic, social realist style of propaganda murals. Amidst the gloomy, grey urban landscape of Tehran, Ghadyanloo’s murals can be considered as a resistance against the greyness of daily life.Influences from Giorgio de Chirico and Rene Magritte are prominent in Ghadyanloo’s public murals and their illusionistic quality are carried over into his paintings. His series of works, such as "The dream spiral", featuring playgrounds, slides, toys and other objects of childhood however, take a more intimate tone. Brightly coloured and alluding to innocence and play, these symbols of childhood are boxed up, contained in its own space where the only outlet seems to be an opening above – light filters in, illuminating the floating playground but its source is unknown. Despite its seductive hyperrealist technique and bright colour, the work presents a hauntingly beautiful still of life which, while devoid of children, recalls laughter and play. The atmosphere in the work is one of abandonment but also an indulgent optimism.