Artist Shirin Neshat Captures Iran's Sharp Contrasts In Black And White
Shirin Neshat, the most famous contemporary artist to come from Iran,
is playing with her rambunctious Labrador puppy in her airy Manhattan
apartment. "Ashi, Ashi, come here!" she calls.
The puppy is
black. Neshat's apartment is white — white floors, white bookshelves and
a long, white leather couch. Black and white defines much of Neshat's
work. Her photographs capture the stark contrast between women in long
black chadors and men in crisp white cotton shirts. Neshat left Iran as a
teenager in 1974 to attend school in Los Angeles. She did not return
until 1990.
"When I went to Iran, I was not an artist yet,"
Neshat says modestly. In truth, she'd been deeply involved in the art
world. After studying painting at the University of California,
Berkeley, she co-ran a well-regarded nonprofit space for art, architecture and design in New York.
But
Neshat's sense of herself as an artist changed after going back to
Iran, 11 years after the Islamic Revolution transformed her country. Men
no longer made eye contact with her. Cosmopolitan Tehranian women who'd
worn mini-skirts during her youth had become graphic shapes on the
street. Neshat processed her complicated feelings through a series of
striking, staged photographs showing women in chadors, some holding
guns. Neshat was not the photographer, but she conceptualized and
directed the Women of Allah series, and appeared in many of
them. She says it's meant to explore the dichotomy between religion,
politics, violence and feminism.
