Shirin Neshat

Shirin Neshat

Shirin Neshat is an Iranian artist famous for her photography, film, and video who lives in New York. As a child, she was enrolled in Catholic boarding school in Tehran so she could be “westernized”. She left Iran to study art in California where she went to Dominican College and UC Berkeley. After graduating, she worked for a non-profit art organization, but she never tried to make art herself. In 1990, she returned to Iran to begin her famous series “The Women of Allah”. This refers to the social Muslim culture and society through a sequence of black and white, very contrasted photos. In 1999, she won the International Award of the XLVIII Biennial of Venice. Shirin Neshat has become one of the most famous Persian artists within the Western artistic world. Her earlier work was a symbol of personal grief, anxiety, and the pain of separation from her home country of Iran. Recently, her artwork has become more political and critical. In 2006, she was awarded The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize that is given to a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind’s enjoyment and understanding of life. In 2009, she won the Silver Lion for best director at the 66^th Venice Film Festival for her debut “Women without Men”.

Her art interested me because I liked the contrast of the black and white. Her theme of the women from Iran is very striking to the eye, thought I do not like it very much. Her photos look very photoshopped as well because the writing on the people is way too dark to be ink on their skin, which bothers me a lot too because it just looks incredibly fake.