Analysis Of Rebellious Silence By Shirin Neshat

Through my passive seeing, I perceived the picture as a woman looking directly at me with calligraphy going across her face. Her face, however, was split in two by what looked to be a stick or object of some sort. Therefore, my initial reaction was that the artist was depicting a non-American culture through this woman in her clothes and the writing. The fact that the image is all black and white also suggests a very solemn mood.
According to The Signs Journal, the artist of this painting, Shirin Neshat, was born in Iran, moved to the US when she was 17 to complete her education but was banned from returning to her country due to the Islamic Revolution. Rebellious Silence is a part of a larger group of pictures, which are all pictures of