[Fall 2022]

Dreams as Acts of Resistance
By Jill Glessing

[Extract]

Displacement, loss, longing – these existential experiences settle in us as we settle around the globe. Contemporary surges of human migration – forced either by conditions of war or poverty or in voluntary search of new opportunities – make these states of dislocation increasingly common.

That sense of estrangement lies at the heart of Iranian- American artist Shirin Neshat’s photo-textual, video, and film work. Throughout her thirty-year career, Neshat has plumbed the emotional states of separation and trauma that shadow exile. These themes may have resonated with visitors to her exhibition, Land of Dreams, at Toronto’s Museum of Contemporary Art. The four works curated by November Paynter span Neshat’s artistic trajectory, from her earliest photographic series, Women of Allah (1993–97), to her latest and most complex multimedia project, Land of Dreams (2019–21), a configuration that provides a sense of her development of themes through different media…

[ Complete issue, in print and digital version, available here: Ciel variable 121 – WANDERINGS ]
[ Complete article and more images, in digital version, available here: Shirin Neshat, Dreams as Acts of Resistance — Jill Glessing ]