Shirin Neshat
n 1975, the artist Shirin Neshat left her home of Iran to attend school in California. She didn’t return to her birthplace for another fifteen years. During her time away, the Islamic Revolution and then the Iran-Iraq War shifted the country’s face past Neshat’s recognition. That cultural dislocation is the thematic heart of an exhibition of three decades of Neshat’s photography and video at the Modern Art Museum—featuring more than two hundred of her works from her iconic early projects such as (1993–97) to her recent series (2019)—considers themes of immigration and exile. “Her work is so important for what it says about gender and ideology and the complications of living between two cultures,” says Andrea Karnes, a senior curator at the museum. “Although the exhibition strikes a very serious tone, it’s also incredibly poetic.”
