Shirin Neshat
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Shirin Neshat (born March 26, 1957 in Qazvin, Iran) is a contemporary visual artist who lives in New York. She is known primarily for her work in film, video and photography. Neshat left Iran at age 17 to attend art school in Los Angeles, and first returned to her homeland after sixteen years. Her work refers to the social, cultural and religious codes of Muslim societies, and the complexity of certain oppositions, such as man and woman. Neshat often emphasizes this theme with the technique of showing two or more coordinated films concurrently, creating stark visual contrasts through such motifs as light and dark, black and white, male and female. Neshat has also made more traditional narrative short films, such as her recent work, "Zarin."
Born in Qazvin, Iran in 1957. Lives and works in New York. The work of Shirin Neshat addresses the social, political and psychological dimensions of women's experience in contemporary Islamic societies. Although Neshat actively resists stereotypical representations of Islam, her artistic objectives are not explicitly polemical. Rather, her work recognizes the complex intellectual and religious forces shaping the identity of Muslim women throughout the world.
Photographer and video-artist, Shirin Neshat was recognized for her brilliant portraits of women entirely overlaid by Farsi calligraphy (notably through the Women of Allah series). She also directed several videos Anchorage (1996), and projected on two opposed facing walls: Shadow under the Web (1997), Turbulent (1998), Rapture (1999) and Soliloquy (1999).
Neshat's recognition became more international in 1999, when she won the International Award of the XLVIII Biennial of Venice with Turbulent, and Rapture, a project involving almost 250 extras and produced by the Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont which met with critical and public success after its worldwide avant-première at the Art Institute of Chicago in May 1999. With Rapture Neshat tried for the first time to make pure photography with the intent of creating an aesthetic, poetic, and emotional shock.
[edit] Works
- Turbulent, 1998. Two channel video/audio installation.
- Rapture, 1999. Two channel video/audio installation.
- Passage, 2001. Single channel video/audio installation.
- Logic of the Birds, 2002. Multi-media Performance.
- The Last Word, 2003. Single channel video/audio installation.
- Mahdokht, 2004. Three channel video/audio installation.
- Zarin, 2005. Single channel video/audio installation.
[edit] Film and Video
- Expressing the inexpressible [videorecording DVD] : Shirin Neshat. c 2004, 42 minutes, Color. Princeton, NJ: Films for the Humanities & Sciences. Originally produced by Westdeutscher Rundfunk in 2000.
