Shirin Neshat
From Provisions
About the Artist
"The first group of photographic work I produced in 1993 certainly reflected the point of view of an Iranian living abroad, looking back in time and trying to analyze and comprehend the changes that had taken place in Iran since the revolution. It was the approach of an artist who had been away for a long time, and it was an important turning point for me artistically and personally, as it became more than art making but a type of journey back to my native country. I was deeply invested in understanding the ideological and philosophical ideas behind contemporary Islam, most of all the origin of the revolution and how it had transformed my country. I knew the subject was very complex and broad so I minimized my focus to something tangible and specific. I chose to concentrate on the meanings behind "martyrdom," a concept which became the heart of the Islamic government’s mission at the time, particularly during the Iran/Iraq War. It promoted faith, self-sacrifice, rejection of the material world, and ultimately, life after death. Mostly, I was interested in how their ideas of spirituality, politics and violence were and still are so interconnected and inseparable from one another. But after a few years, I felt that I had exhausted the subject and needed to move on. I no longer wanted to make work that dealt so directly with issues of politics. I wanted to make work that was more lyrical, philosophical and poetic."
--Shirin Neshat, Interviewed by Arthur C. Danto in Bomb Magazine
"Neshat plans to shoot a film about the United States overthrowing a democratically-elected government in Iran to gain control of the nation’s vast oil supplies... while the movie is set in the past, Neshat hopes it will reverberate in the present, showing Westerners how their role in history is partly responsible for the current state of affairs. 'I am drawn to this project because I feel so strongly about the need for Westerners to look back in history... Most Westerners have amnesia beyond the Islamic revolution. They have very little concept of the foundation of the problems that we have between Islam and America, and Islam and the West.' ...Neshat stressed that she is not an activist, but rather, an artist whose job is to inspire people to believe in the good and humanity in every one."
--Filmmaker sees lessons in Iranian history, Central Chronicle, October 2006
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