Charlie Rose

2378450  02/12/2012 02:53 PM Report

Shirin Neshat is a Iranian filmaker and photographer who has gone from painting in an art school to photography and filmmakeing. Neshat felt like painting was not suitable for her so that is when she moved over to photography and exploring her Iranian Islamic roots. Through her films she wanted people to see the basics of what her Iranian culture is like. When she moved to New York she experience 9/11 up close with her son. Experiencing this has made her change in sereval ways as an American and Citizen of New York and as the Muslim culture. Neshat is currently working on some poetry and photography for more people to see women and other prospectives in her Iranin Muslim culture.

2577519  01/29/2012 10:59 PM Report

<p> In this video link of Shirin Neshat, and Iranian filmmaker and photographer who had recently made three video film installations: Passage, Possessed and Pulse. In this conversation she had discussed her journey starting from painting in arts school then photography and Turbulent to three film installations. <p>

<p> Shirin was making paintings but when she realizes the subject “women” which was not possible to portrait in paintings, so she chose photography. Her works is based on the Iranian societies basically on the Muslim religion but according to her Iranian Islamic culture is quite different and have more complexities in it which she wanted to show the people through her photography. Through her films and Turbulent she just want the audience to understand the reality Image of Iranian culture, the level of ambiguity, kind of dualities and threats of communality Muslims, complexion of culture and politics, notion of relationship of gender to music in Iranian culture specifically in Turbulent. <p>

<p> She discussed her subject woman in Turbulent. The audio/video representations shows that when a guy a singing there is so many people who came to hear that and dressed like the singer to appreciate him and after he sings, they clap and appreciates but on the other hand, the when the woman is singing, no audience is there to listen her but later on she invented her own music in which without sayings a word they expresses so many emotions. So they discussed the man v/s female companion piece of music. <p>

<p> Also they discussed about the September 11th, the tragedy related to the world trade center. She said that she lives very close to the world trade center and that time she was dropping her son to the school who was really close to the proximity. She happened to see the whole tragedy and she was grateful to see that as it’s a different to experience such a tragedy personally. Also she said that for few weeks she was in grief but then when she thought of political side that she was having two kinds of emotions, one is that she was resident of New York for many years and her son was in close proximity to the tragedy and other the other side she is Muslim, Iranian and heard that people said that thy were having relations with those who actually attacked on the world trade center. So she said that she was in the midst of the very peculiar situation. <p>

<p>The conversation also led to the Passage which was led by music of Philip and was about a death mourning. A group of men taking a dead body to deliver to the lady who in anxiety preparing a grave and the king of music they used for such a universal subject is very powerful, it really touch our hearts. Though the video is abstract and non-literal but still is shows some sense of commonality and cultures and universality. <p>

<p> Shirin is hopping of understanding specially from American side, as for Iranian its very usual. She offers the complexity and duality of Muslim culture and a sense of realistic and mysticism and a level of emotionality with the poetry and different prospects of photography though which wants us to understand a subject of woman and other prospects in Iranian Muslim culture.