Shirin Neshat: The Last Word

This, the first monograph to thoroughly document Shirin Neshat s video production, provides both a beautiful reminder of her work s color and intensity and a crucial tool for her increasing number of fans and scholars. Neshat, who studied in the United States and has lived in New York for many years, found international success following the explosive release of her images of Muslim women wrapped in their chador, with verses by rebel Persian poetesses traced on their faces, hands and feet. She became renowned when her short film Turbulent was awarded the Leone d'Oro at the 1999 Venice Biennial. With her camera persistently focused on the veiled women of the Muslim world, Neshat has continued to make striking and courageous work of rare beauty and intensity, and has presented it to continuing acclaim. She goes fearlessly into the widening gulf between conformism and revolt, submission and compliance, that characterizes the women of the Muslim world, seeking out images from the far sides of the divide that will both narrow the distance and help viewers sound its depths. The Last Word is a necessity for those who would approach, informed, the poetic works and the fierce commitment of an extraordinary artist.

Shirin Neshat was born in 1957 in Qazvin, Iran. As a teenager she moved to the U.S. to study art at the University of California, Berkeley. Five years later, following Iranis Islamic Revolution, she found herself in unintentional exile, unable to return home. It would be another 15 years before she went back, and before she began to make the art for which she is best known. Her first solo show, at Franklin Furnace, was followed by a long list of others, including exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, the Walker Art Center and the Tate Gallery. She has participated in the Venice Biennale, the Carnegie International, and the Whitney Biennial, and in film festivals including Tribeca and Sundance. Her work has won the International Center of Photographyis Infinity Award and the First International Prize at the Venice Biennale.