Rebellious Silence, from the Women of Allah series Shirin Neshat (artist); photo by Cynthia Preston. 1994 C.E. Ink on photograph.
Photograph, Farsi decorates the artists face, black and white, image shows a veiled woman with the barrel of a gun pointing straight up dividing her face. Her gaze looks directly at the viewer with unwavering confidence.
Theme:
Women's identies in the changing Middle East
Form:
Hard contrast of black chador and bright white background - appears sparse, measured, and symmetrical
Function:
Examines complexities of women's identities in the changing cultural landscape in the Middle East both through W representation and the more intimate subject of personal/religious conviction
Content:
Split created by the weapon implies violent rupture/psychic fragmentation; single subject host to internal contradictions (tradition/modernity, E/W, beauty/violence) - black/white; all of the collection has 4 symbols: veil (freedom of religion/repression), gun, text, and gaze (signifier of sexuality, sin, shame, and power - feminism gazing back - defying against submission); double meaning of shoot (camera violation of woman's body; gun - martyrdom); texts are writings by women (many viewpoints)
Context:
Reflects changes since the Islamic Rev in Iran (1979) (overthrew the Shah who took power during WW2 - violet repression of political/religious freedom and modernism); Neshat moved to California and when she moved back she was faced w/ a society completely different; living in exile in U.S since 1990s
