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Lot Essay
Having fled her native Iran at the age of seventeen as a political exile during the Khomeini Revolution, Shirin Neshat has always explored conflict in her art. Deeply affected by her country's political history and culture, ideas around civil war and women’s rights permeate the themes and content of her practice.
Neshat’s The Home of My Eyes series was created to form a collective portrait of Azerbaijan, a country that for so long has been a crossroads for many different ethnicities, religions and languages. Shot in Baku in 2014, the series comprises fifty-five portraits of individuals representing a diverse range of ages and backgrounds of citizens living across all parts of Azerbaijan. Formally united through the artist’s monochrome photographic prints, each subject holds their hands together against their chest in a powerful pose that is reminiscent of religious iconography. Neshat interviewed each sitter on the notion of ‘home’ and what it meant for them individually—their answers were later translated into Farsi and the calligraphic text inscribed in ink over each portrait. Neshat also includes excerpts of poetry by twelfth-century Iranian-born poet Nizami Ganjavi, who lived for most of his life in an area that is now present-day Azerbaijan.
Neshat moved moved to California in 1974 and after graduating from the University of California at Berkley in 1983, she moved to New York where she remains to this day. Neshat’s solo exhibitions and films have been presented at museums internationally, including the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and the Serpentine Gallery, London. Neshat was awarded the Golden Lion Award at the 48th Venice Biennale in 1999, and a major retrospective of her work was held at the Detroit Institute of Arts in 2013. She is represented by Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels, and Goodman Gallery, London, Johannesburg and Cape Town.
Neshat’s The Home of My Eyes series was created to form a collective portrait of Azerbaijan, a country that for so long has been a crossroads for many different ethnicities, religions and languages. Shot in Baku in 2014, the series comprises fifty-five portraits of individuals representing a diverse range of ages and backgrounds of citizens living across all parts of Azerbaijan. Formally united through the artist’s monochrome photographic prints, each subject holds their hands together against their chest in a powerful pose that is reminiscent of religious iconography. Neshat interviewed each sitter on the notion of ‘home’ and what it meant for them individually—their answers were later translated into Farsi and the calligraphic text inscribed in ink over each portrait. Neshat also includes excerpts of poetry by twelfth-century Iranian-born poet Nizami Ganjavi, who lived for most of his life in an area that is now present-day Azerbaijan.
Neshat moved moved to California in 1974 and after graduating from the University of California at Berkley in 1983, she moved to New York where she remains to this day. Neshat’s solo exhibitions and films have been presented at museums internationally, including the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and the Serpentine Gallery, London. Neshat was awarded the Golden Lion Award at the 48th Venice Biennale in 1999, and a major retrospective of her work was held at the Detroit Institute of Arts in 2013. She is represented by Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels, and Goodman Gallery, London, Johannesburg and Cape Town.