art of shirin neshat
Desmond Ashford
SPEECHLESS
Shirin Neshat is perhaps one of the best-known artists of the Iranian diaspora following the 1979
Revolution, which replaced a secular regime with an Islamic republic. Born in Qazvin, she left
Iran at the age of sixteen to study in the United States; she received her BA, MA, and MFA from the University of California, Berkeley, before moving to New York. Neshat returned to the
Islamic Republic of Iran in 1990 and much of what she saw and experienced informed her first major body of work, the photographic series Women of Allah.
“Speechless is a young woman’s work of art to speak about her culture and homeland that she had been banished from for eleven years. Shirin capture the emotion of this woman. Clearly you see the barrel of the gun sticking out the side of the woman face with writing across her face in scroll. It shows how woman cannot express themselves without the fear of being executed or being punishd. With this painting of work, she has spoken out and let the world know how she us to felt and others like about being oppressed and being restricted of their daily live. To me to work speaks out saying you cant stop her voice, her creation, her gift, her passion and art. She stares calm outward. Neshat face, except for the eye, is covered with Persian text written directly on the image. Although Neshat it looks tightly framed her face is the subject, it give the viewer a since of been held captive
By buying this painting you will be getting the passionate she has in this painting. It’s very simple but very complex due to the symbolism of each object in the picture. The look on the
woman face with the tears brimming at her eyes gives a look of strength and also a cry for help.
She makes the symbol of a woman in mourning more powerful by having opposites of each emotion in the photograph: freedom and oppression, strength and weakness determination and submission, hope and despair.
SPEECHLESS
Shirin Neshat is perhaps one of the best-known artists of the Iranian diaspora following the 1979
Revolution, which replaced a secular regime with an Islamic republic. Born in Qazvin, she left
Iran at the age of sixteen to study in the United States; she received her BA, MA, and MFA from the University of California, Berkeley, before moving to New York. Neshat returned to the
Islamic Republic of Iran in 1990 and much of what she saw and experienced informed her first major body of work, the photographic series Women of Allah.
“Speechless is a young woman’s work of art to speak about her culture and homeland that she had been banished from for eleven years. Shirin capture the emotion of this woman. Clearly you see the barrel of the gun sticking out the side of the woman face with writing across her face in scroll. It shows how woman cannot express themselves without the fear of being executed or being punishd. With this painting of work, she has spoken out and let the world know how she us to felt and others like about being oppressed and being restricted of their daily live. To me to work speaks out saying you cant stop her voice, her creation, her gift, her passion and art. She stares calm outward. Neshat face, except for the eye, is covered with Persian text written directly on the image. Although Neshat it looks tightly framed her face is the subject, it give the viewer a since of been held captive
By buying this painting you will be getting the passionate she has in this painting. It’s very simple but very complex due to the symbolism of each object in the picture. The look on the
woman face with the tears brimming at her eyes gives a look of strength and also a cry for help.
She makes the symbol of a woman in mourning more powerful by having opposites of each emotion in the photograph: freedom and oppression, strength and weakness determination and submission, hope and despair.