Behind the Scene: Studio Visit with Shirin Neshat
Shirin Neshat’s studio is one for the 21st century: one end features a storyboard of photographs for Neshat’s next project, a biopic on the life of Egypt’s most popular singer, Oum Kalthoum; while between the windows on the Canal Street wall hangs a 50” flat screen TV, perhaps in place of an easel. It takes a few minutes to notice, but tucked away by the door is a little rolling table and some shelves with brushes and ink for Neshat’s calligraphic work. “Usually all these people, like Jeff Koons, have a factory full of people. It takes me forever!” she cheerfully grumbles over the care that goes into her signature photo portraits that she inscribed with Farsi text. In her most recent exhibition The Book of Kings at Barbara Gladstone this past winter, the inky writing comprised of contemporary Persian poetry and passages from prisoners’ journals. “I hadn’t been doing photography for 10 years,” she explains. “It was difficult to go back to a single person and get something very significant from their gaze.” Read More
