[Fall 2001]
Shirin Neshat, Passage, 2001, production stills. © Shirin Neshat / photo: Larry Barns, courtesy of Barbara Gladstone
Shirin Neshat, Passage, 2001, production stills. © Shirin Neshat / photo: Larry Barns, courtesy of Barbara Gladstone
Shirin Neshat, Passage, 2001, production stills. © Shirin Neshat / photo: Larry Barns, courtesy of Barbara Gladstone
Shirin Neshat, Speechless, 1996, silver print 119 x 84 cm. © Shirin Neshat / photo: Larry Barns, courtesy of Barbara Gladstone
Shirin Neshat, Possessed, 2001, production still. © Shirin Neshat / photo: Larry Barns, courtesy of Barbara Gladstone
Shirin Neshat, Rapture, 1999, production stills. © Shirin Neshat / photo: Larry Barns, courtesy of Barbara Gladstone
Shirin Neshat, Soliloquy, 1999, production stills. © Shirin Neshat / photo: Larry Barns, courtesy of Barbara Gladstone
Shirin Neshat, Turbulent, 1998, production stills. © Shirin Neshat / photo: Larry Barns, courtesy of Barbara Gladstone
Summary
Imbued by the question of identity and addressing mainly Western viewers, Shirin Neshat’s production constantly negotiates the variety of perspectives (masculine, feminine, feminist, Middle Eastern, Western, Asian) that come together at the base of “Moslem” identity. This negotiation, however, strategically maintains the Eastern–Western dualism. The specificity of Neshat’s work resides in the conjunction between the identity displacement of Islamic women, on the one hand, and the fixed identity of the Western viewer, on the other hand. The question underlying this text is thus the following: How does Neshat’s work articulate the antinomy of change and reification?
Shirin Neshat is internationally known for her artwork exploring issues related to the position of women within the Islamic society. She first used photography and, since 1997, has gradually moved to video and film installations, often placing the spectator between two opposite screens. Shirin Neshat is born in Iran and now lives and works in New York.