In Deference

Edition of 20
25 9/16 x 40 inches  (64.9 x 101.6 cm)
Signed and numbered
(Inventory #31658)

“I think some of the core subjects of my work, for example, the notions of tyranny, political injustice, fanaticism, displacement, and immigration are some of the issues that feel very relevant considering what’s going on everywhere in the world today.”
Shirin Neshat

Neshat’s earliest works were photographs, such as the Unveiling (1993) and Women of Allah (1993–97) series, which explore notions of femininity in relation to Islamic fundamentalism and militancy in her home country. Her subsequent video works departed dramatically from overtly political content or critique, in favor of more poetic imagery and narratives. Her first video installations—the trilogy comprising Turbulent (1998), Rapture (1999), and Fervor (2000)—utilize dual video screens to portray abstract oppositions based around gender and society, the individual and the group. While these works hint at the restrictive nature of Islamic laws regarding women, they deliberately open onto multiple readings, reaching instead toward universal conditions. Other videos have expanded upon this formula, presenting similarly ambiguous narratives.

For the past several years, Neshat has been exploring the complex relationship between the physical state and the psychological one. Gesture and expression are examined in literal and metaphoric terms. There is contradiction in spite of directness, and a multiplicity of powerful implications is sensitively proposed. With “In Deference,” these issues are taken to art history and also to the present. With this work, Neshat has printed the photograph onto aluminum using dye-sublimation technology. Because the dyes are transferred directly into the metal surface of every photograph, the immediacy of the technique adds a distinctive physicality to the artist’s exceptional photography.

Shirin Neshat is a critically acclaimed artist who is celebrated for her photography and work in film and video. She has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions around the world, and has also been included in important group exhibitions, such as Prospect.1: New Orleans International Biennial; 11th Documenta; 5th Lyon Biennale; 12th Sydney Biennale; 3rd Gwangju Biennale; 54th Carnegie International; 48th Venice Biennale; 5th International Istanbul Biennale; and 2nd Johannesburg Biennale. Shirin Neshat’s works of art have been acquired by many private collectors, as well as institutions, including 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa; Brooklyn Museum of Art; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León; Museum Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate Modern, London; Tel Aviv Museum of Art; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Among other prestigious commendations she has received throughout her illustrious career, she was awarded the Praemium Imperiale Award, in Tokyo, from His Imperial Highness Prince Hitachi, honorary patron of the Japan Art Association, in 2017.