The Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy commissioned a temporary installation on The Greenway's 70' x 76' air ventilation intake structure by Iranian artist Mehdi Ghadyanloo, an emerging star in the international art community. Mehdi Ghadyanloo has become internationally known for painting over 100 surrealist city-scale murals in his native Tehran and the artist's Boston mural represents his American debut.

Inspired by David Harvey's utopian book by the same title, Spaces of Hope depicts individuals walking through and up a series of platforms and staircases that eventually spirals-like a helix-toward an opening in the dome created by the building's curved wall. There, at the very top, a large red balloon hovers in wait, suspended in midair as light streams in through the oculus above.

Like the other sun-filled apertures in the composition, this opening to the sky serves to bathe an otherwise somber scene in radiance. Per the artist's account, the mural commemorates the small wishes-which take the shape of fragile balloons on the verge of popping at any given moment-that individuals carry throughout their lives.

The rhythm of these wish-balloons carried by humans in procession echoes the hustle and bustle of the nearby metro stop while also offering a visual eulogy for the victims of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. Festive yet mournful, and open-ended in meaning, Ghadyanloo's mural celebrates both sorrow and joy as it raises questions about what looms ahead.

His public murals are part of the fabric of the city, creating a dialogue with the people who surround them as their daily experiences become part of his expansive composition. Foregoing political commentary in his public art, Ghadyanloo is more interested in capturing and communicating dreams and imaginations that people all over the world share.