Arizona State University Art Museum
at the Nelson Fine Arts Center

Shirin Neshat: Rapture - Film Installation and Photographs

Shirin Neshat's Rapture is both literally and figuratively a separation of genders. Neshat's film installation consists of two large, opposing projections that depict men and women separated from each other; while polarized both visually and spatially, both are kept locked in a dynamic though subtle interaction that powerfully underscores gender-based inequalities.

One projection presents men partaking in ritual behavior, symbolically participating together in the activities of society. Left to sit and watch as their culture passes them over, the women appearing in the opposite projection are presented as mute observers, viewing the men's activities without being able to participate. As the 13-minute work progresses, a “kell” - a traditional form of chanting in Islamic culture - draws the viewer's attention back to the women. It is the metaphoric breaking point in the drama, the moment when overwhelming frustration leads to action.

Rapture is a poetic and moving 16mm film installation addressing traditional gender roles in patriarchal, fundamentalist society, one that Iranian-born Neshat, who has lived in the United States since 1974, has experienced. Visiting her homeland in 1990, after a 12-year absence due to the 1978-79 Islamic Revolution, she was taken aback by the memory of her homeland and the changes she saw in a country that was now so ideologically constricted. Iran had become a country in which contact between the sexes in public spaces was considered taboo. The impact of that visit and the potent influence it has had on the artist's work comes across unmistakably, without a single word of dialogue.

The relevance of Rapture's thematic concerns goes beyond the cultural boundaries of a fundamentalist country. The struggles the film addresses are those at the forefront of racial, sexual, religious, and political rights issues worldwide. Attempts to keep a segment of people from actively and fully participating in society, solely because of one's gender, race, place of birth or religious preference, often result in revolt or self-imposed separatism. Rapture affords the viewer the opportunity to experience emotionally this feeling of loss and questions the consequences of societal failure to respect the views and perspectives of others.

The Arizona State University Art Museum is proud to present this installation to its audience and campus community, and to have the great fortune of presenting the film installation alongside photographic stills from Rapture on loan from the collection of Stéphane Janssen.