Galleri F 15 is pleased to present The Fury by Shirin Neshat.
The Fury is an exhibition of the most recent work by Iranian visual artist and photographer Shirin Neshat. Shot in New York in June of 2022, The Fury comprises a double-channel video installation, a VR experience, and a series of black and white photographs.
These multidimensional bodies of work continue upon her incisive artmaking practice that focuses on the female body as both a battleground for ideology and a source of strength. By questioning and drawing attention to the relationship between the masculine and feminine, the individual and the collective, these highly charged images address issues of power within patriarchal societies.
In a highly fictionalized and stylized way, Neshat’s new video installation addresses the sexual exploitation of women as political prisoners. Subjected to severe torture, sexual assault, including rape, it is commonly known that even after being released, many of the women are unable to recover emotionally from the trauma experienced in prison, and often commit suicide.
The video traces the psychological and emotional journey of a young Iranian woman, who, although now lives freely in the United States, remains traumatized by her memories in captivity.
Shown alongside this video is a new photographic series that focuses more directly on the female body as both an object of desire and of violence. With hand-inscribed calligraphy of poems by Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzad (1934-1967), these portraits of a diverse selection of women convey a sense of beauty, dignity, confidence, and pride, yet pain, vulnerability, and trauma.
For decades, Neshat’s expansive body of work has focused on the problematics of the female body in Islamic cultures, specifically in relation to her country, Iran, and the way in which the female body has continued to be a contested space for sin, shame, desire, repression, political & religious ideology, while also rebellion, power and protest. The Fury builds upon this legacy of interrogating and spotlighting issues that impact women, both in Iran and globally.
Press release from Galleri F 15
Image: Shirin Neshat. The Fury. 2022. Film still. © Shirin Neshat. Image courtesy of the artist and Gladstone Gallery
