Land of Dreams

In her latest body of work, multimedia artist Shirin Neshat (b. 1957) turns her focus to the American West. With more than 100 photographs, a two-channel video installation, and a feature film, Neshat creates a multilayered, nuanced look at contemporary America through the eyes of a fictionalized artist. Monumental black-and-white photographs are transformed through Neshat's use of Farsi text and images that have been hand drawn onto the picture. The texts represent Neshat's interpretation of the dreams of the sitter, with references to ancient myths and ideologies. Neshat notes, "With Land of Dreams, the intention was that while we are following the life of this woman who’s haunted by these two worlds – Iran and US, dream and reality – we are also really understanding the malice of a society that is spying on people’s subconscious for whatever selfish reasons. There is definitely a question of collecting data on people, but also there’s a lot of references to racism, bigotry, political injustice, poverty." Neshat works and continues to experiment with the mediums of photography, video and film, which she imbues with highly poetic and politically charged images and narratives that question issues of power, religion, race, gender and the relationship between the past and present, occident and orient, individual and collective through the lens of her personal experiences as an Iranian woman living in exile. Land of Dreams is co-published with SITE Santa Fe, and accompanies Neshat's one-person show opening October 7th, 2022- through January 13th, 2023.

Hardcover / 8.5 x 12.5 inches 77 color images / 156 pages ISBN: 9781955161091