My Beloved

Artist Shirin Neshat (American and Iranian, born 1957)

Date1995

Mediumgelatin silver print on resin-coated paper, with hand additions in India ink

Dimensions81.3 x 54.6 cm (32 x 21 1/2 in.)
Frame: 94 x 67.9 cm (37 x 26 3/4 in.)

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineSarah C. Garver Fund

Terms

Object number2002.35

Label TextPhotographer and filmmaker, Neshat came to the United States in 1974 to study at Berkeley where she went on to receive a Masters in Fine Arts. Due to the political turmoil caused by Iranian revolution under the regime of Ayatollah Khomeini, Neshat was unable to return to Iran until 1990. Feeling like a foreigner in her homeland led her to produce artwork addressing the ideological issues she saw in contemporary Islam and the “new” Iran. The photographs of Neshat’s Women of Allah series investigate gender in Islamic fundamentalist society. The artist appears in each photograph dressed in the Muslim chador. On the finished photographs she inscribes the love poetry of Persian poets in Farsi calligraphy. Neshat serves as the director of her art. She does not handle the camera; rather the mechanical aspect of her work is handled by Larry Barnes in the United States and Bahman Jallali in Iran. **** Neshat utilizes text to decorative and political ends. Her series Women of Allah examines the intersections between religion, power, and gender-based oppression. Here, she presents a portrait of herself clutching her son with a gun close-at-hand. Hand-inscribed on her head covering is an excerpt from a poem written by Forough Farrokhzad (1934-67), an Iranian feminist, “I die in you but you are my life!” The meaning of the work shifts depending on the viewer. For those who cannot read Farsi, the calligraphic marks appear ornamental highlighting the fact that a viewer’s identity impacts their understanding of an artwork.ProvenanceBarbara Gladstone Gallery, New York

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Not on view