Shirin Neshat Offerings (SN376), 2019 Silver gelatin print and ink Work: 76.2 x 61 cm
Shirin Neshat’s work explores issues such as gender politics, cultural self-definition and religious authority in her work. Largely using female imagery, she examines political and societal change in Iran. For the artist, Iranian women embody this political transformation, so that “by studying a woman, you can read the structure and the ideology of the country”. Neshat occupies an influential and highly respected position in the international contemporary art world, not only for her formidable artistic talent but also for her long history as a writer and cultural worker. Her socially-based practice uncovers hidden histories and engages with marginalised lived experiences; constructing expanding visual archives which claim legitimate, visible spaces for her subjects. By proposing these different modes and perspectives of representation, Neshat’s works serve as prime examples of the nexus of art and social activism.
Neshat’s 'Offerings' series stem from a wine label she designed in 2019 for the Ornellaia Wine Estate. The concept is centered around the theme of wine as a catalyst for social sharing, a life force that should be “enjoyed during our brief time on earth”, in the words of the 11th-century Persian poet Omar Khayyam whose poem is inscribed as calligraphy over the surfaces of female faces, hands and bodies. Neshat's iconic poetic visual language creates contrasts between the softness of the skin and the graphic nature of the text.
