Shirin Neshat | Neshat-isms

Shirin Neshat/Larry Walsh

Neshat-isms

Princeton, USA: Princeton University Press, 2024

152 pp., 4.25 x 5.25”, hardcover

Edition size unknown

Released in February of this year, this title is from a series curated and edited by Larry Walsh that includes Ai WeiWei, Keith Haring, Judy Chicago, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Damian Hirst and others. 

Following a very brief, six-paragraph introduction by Walsh, the book is divided into six chapters: Art, Film, Process, Identity & Self, Belonging, and Resistance. It features quotes from the artist, gathered from interviews (with Arthur Danto, Robert Enright & Meeka Walsh, Glenn Lowry, etc.), writings and public talks. 

When I was teaching at the University of Guelph, Shirin Neshat gave a lecture at the school, in 2017. It was March 8th and Donald Trump had been president for less than two months, but had already issued his second travel ban for Muslim countries, two days prior. 

Surrounded by portraits of men that adorn the walls of the War Memorial Hall - and on the hundredth iteration of International Woman’s Day - audience member Merray Gerges asked Neshat to clarify a previous statement about not identifying as a feminist. 

“I have a problem with descriptions like that,” she replied. “If a man makes work about men, he’s a masculinist? I feel there is a certain amount of responsibility when you say, ‘I’m a feminist.’ What does that mean? I’m not competing with men. I’m not interested in being a man. I’m just interested in expressing and exploring women’s issues. Does that make me a feminist?”

“Yes!” yelled the crowd. 

“Okay, fine. I am,” she quickly conceded. “It took me years to figure out whether I am a feminist or not so thank you, you helped me a lot.”

It was a pretty compelling moment: both her initial reluctance to be reduced to an epithet (her history of advocacy for human rights is well documented and didn’t require buttressing) but also her willingness to accept the term as defined by the crowd. 

This kind of back-and-forth or larger context is what’s missing from this collection. Many of the statements are fairly innocuous and would be interchangeable with just about any artist: 

“I see my art as a tool for dialogue” 

“I never censor myself, but I do give myself a lot of boundaries”

“Art is about artists asking questions, but not providing answers” 

Neshat-isms is at its most engaging when the quotes begin to form a portrait of the artist, as a kind of cobbled together biography. For example:

“Through my work I have continued to defy and resist the Western clichéd image of Iranian women as passive victims. While acknowledging the repressive situation in Iran, I have continued to represent Iranian women as empowered, courageous, defiant, and rebellious.”

and 

“Every Iranian artist, in one form or another, is political. Politics has defined our lives.”

“I’ve done a lot of work about women in a state of madness, where ultimately they find a kind of freedom.”

While I’m always happy to read primary source material, this ultimately feels like handsomely produced bathroom book.