Visual artists convey important components of the human experience by reflecting the society around them. They can weave intricate tales about history, culture, or our very own lives using just imagery. One prominent visual artist whose works have captivated audiences for many decades is Shirin Neshat. Let’s examine her work in more detail and why audiences are enamored by it.

Shirin Neshat was born in the city of Qazvin in Iran in 1957. At the age of seventeen, Neshat went to the United States to complete her education. The 1979 Islamic Revolution prevented her from returning to her home country for many decades.

In 1983 Neshat shifted to New York, where she started a job at the Storefront for Art and Architecture, which was a special space dedicated to interdisciplinary arts. Neshat initially studied art in college; however, she did not pursue work in the field until she visited Iran in 1993.

Neshat’s visit to Iran following the Islamic Revolution was an eye-opening one. She was shocked to see that the women in the country had been forced to wear “chador”, which is a traditional Islamic veil. After returning to the United States, Neshat created Women of Allah, a calligraphic photo set in 1994. This visual piece highlighted the contrast between the public and private identities of women in Iranian and Western societies. The piece garnered plenty of attention internationally, which motivated Neshar to continue creating visual art.

In 1994, she released Allegiance with Wakefulness, a visual piece that showed a pair of feet with the soles covered in Iranian text and a gun barrel visible between them.

In 2003, she created the film The Last Word. The film’s protagonist, a young woman, is interrogated by a man and his assistants in an attempt to gather evidence against her. The woman is silent throughout the interrogation, until she finally responds by reciting a poem. This poem was written by Forough Farrokhzad, an Iranian poet whose works and lifestyle had been condemned in Iran.

The film drew comparisons to Franz Kafka’s book The Trial, which follows a similar plot. The Last Word’s protagonist was meant to represent all the artists in Iran or any country where artistic imagination and freedom are suppressed by authority.

Shirin Neshat’s works have been displayed at galleries and many different film festivals across the globe. Her 1998 two-screen film installation Turbulent won the First International Prize at the 48th Venice Biennale in 1999. The artist also won the Infinity Award for Visual Art from the International Center of Photography in 2002. In 2006, she received the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize.

Neshat’s works serve as an inspiration to female artists across the world. She demonstrates that thought-provoking art can come from anywhere as long as it receives the right support.