{"id":103392,"date":"2025-07-08T14:00:47","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T14:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=103392"},"modified":"2025-07-04T13:00:04","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T13:00:04","slug":"shirin-neshat-parrish-art-museum-grazia-usa-hamptons-gazette","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/shirin-neshat-parrish-art-museum-grazia-usa-hamptons-gazette\/","title":{"rendered":"Shirin Neshat Takes the Hamptons"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nida (Patriots),<\/em> from The Book of Kings,<\/em>\u00a02012. Artwork \u00a9 Shirin Neshat, Courtesy the artist, Gladstone Gallery, & Noirmontartproduction<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Visitors to the Parrish Art Museum\u2019s summer exhibition, <\/span>Shirin Neshat: Born of Fire<\/span><\/i><\/a>, unfamiliar with the Iranian American conceptual artist\u2019s oeuvre exploring themes of female empowerment, political resistance, and cultural displacement, would be forgiven for thinking she has a background in fashion photography. Which isn\u2019t to say that there are designer labels pictured in this nonlinear survey focusing on four significant bodies of work the Brooklyn-based artist created over the past two decades. There\u2019s a quiet chicness to the minimalist looks worn by women in Neshat\u2019s arresting Persian calligraphy-overlaid black-and-white photos, to say nothing of the dramatic potential implicit in a swipe of kohl.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think Shirin\u2019s work resonates with visitors because it is absolutely beautiful and she gives us a way into difficult themes through aesthetics,\u201d says the exhibition\u2019s curator, Corinne Erni. The two met in the early \u201890s before either woman had embarked on her current career in the art world\u2014Erni was a fashion designer and Neshat co-director of the alternative art space Storefront for Art and Architecture\u2014and have been friends ever since. \u201cShe captures the soul of humanity in depicting the struggle for freedom of both Iranians and Americans,\u201d Erni elaborates.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Installation View of Patriots <\/em>and Villains <\/em>from The Book of Kings,<\/em> 2012. Artwork \u00a9 Shirin Neshat, Courtesy the artist, Gladstone Gallery, & Noirmontartproduction, Paris. Photo \u00a9 Gary Mamay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Born in Qazvin, Iran, in 1957, Neshat was a student at Berkeley when the Islamic Revolution broke out in 1979 and has spent most of her life in exile. In the exhibition\u2019s earliest body of work, <\/span>Women of Allah <\/span><\/i>(1993-97), Neshat grapples with with the ways Iranian women\u2019s lives have been drastically curtailed by the morality police through performative self-portraits in which she appears swathed in a chador that leaves only her face\u2014and the butt of a riffle\u2014exposed. Later photos and video pieces often highlight black secular clothing. <\/span>The Book of Kings<\/span><\/i> (2012), an installation of 40 large-format photos relating the Green Movement protests of 2009 to the 11th-century Persian epic poem <\/span>Shahnameh <\/span><\/i>about the rise and fall of dynasties and the struggle between good and evil, juxtaposes black V-neck tee hands-over-heart Patriots with crewneck-clad passive observer Masses and shirtless tattooed Villains.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Still from The Fury,<\/em> 2022 Artwork \u00a9 Shirin Neshat, Courtesy the artist and Gladstone Gallery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cMy work started with the black veil, but once I turned my back towards the hijab, black became more of an aesthetic choice,\u201d Neshat reflects. \u201cOne of the reasons for the minimalist style is that I really like wearing this type of clothing myself. I also like that you can\u2019t tell the period of black pieces. While often inspired by current events, my work is meant to be evocative and timeless.\u201d Sometimes, though, Neshat\u2019s fashion choices skew a bit more maximalist: <\/span>The Fury <\/span><\/i>(2022-2023), a multimedia series about the long-term effects of trauma, includes a two-channel video piece in which a former Iranian political prisoner and sexual abuse survivor experiences a mental break on the street in Bushwick in an off-the-shoulder sequin gown and wildly drawn on cat eye liner. \u201cStyle enhances the character,\u201d says Neshat. \u201cJust like scenery, costumes and makeup become a part of the narrative.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Installation view of Land of Dreams,<\/em> 2019. Artwork \u00a9 Shirin Neshat, Courtesy the artist, Gladstone Gallery, and Goodman Gallery. Photo \u00a9 Gary Mamay.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Land of Dreams<\/span><\/i> (2019-2021), is a departure both in form and in subject matter. It includes Neshat\u2019s first documentary series she terms a \u201cportrait of America,\u201d comprising 111 individual portraits of people of every race and creed she photographed in New Mexico and inscribed with excerpts from an ancient Persian text on dream interpretation. It marks the first time after spending most of her life in the United States that she chose to highlight her adopted homeland. Over the course of two weeks, Neshat canvassed the Land of Enchantment from urban neighborhoods in Albuquerque to the old Spanish colonial town Las Vegas and the high desert outpost Farmington on the edge of Navajo Nation, setting up a gray seamless in hotels, parks, and even a pizza parlor.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Simin<\/em> and Consuelo Contan<\/em>a from Land of Dreams,<\/em> 2019. Artwork \u00a9 Shirin Neshat, Courtesy the artist, Gladstone Gallery, and Goodman Gallery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI went around asking my subjects if they could remember their latest dream,\u201d Neshat recalls. \u201cWe told them they should come as they would like to be photographed, and some of them dressed quite elegantly. We put on makeup, and then slowly they felt very comfortable.\u201d The portrait series includes an Easter egg: Simin, Neshat\u2019s alter-ego in a later two-channel video piece and a feature film<\/a> that will be screened at the Parrish on August 10, also both called <\/span>Land of Dreams. <\/span><\/i>Played by the Iranian American actress Sheila Vand, this mysteriously chic woman in an LBD and combat boots is a \u201cdreamcatcher\u201d who records Americans\u2019 dreams to indeterminate ends. \u201cMy earlier work was very much about Iran, and even though I am now turning my perspective to American culture, the issues are very similar,\u201d Neshat says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read GRAZIA USA\u2019<\/em>s Hamptons Gazette<\/a>:<\/strong><\/h4>\n