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Artist Shirin Neshat reflects on Iran in 1979 and now amid protest movement

Iranian visual artist Shirin Neshat stands next to an untitled work from her "Women of Allah" series, during the Frieze Los Angeles 2020 art fair in Los Angeles, California, on Feb. 14, 2020. (MARK Ralston/AFP via Getty Images)
Iranian visual artist Shirin Neshat stands next to an untitled work from her "Women of Allah" series, during the Frieze Los Angeles 2020 art fair in Los Angeles, California, on Feb. 14, 2020. (MARK Ralston/AFP via Getty Images)

Iranian visual artist Shirin Neshat has lived her entire adult life in the United States but she says her work — which focuses on Iranian women — has been shaped by the 1979 Iranian revolution. Today, Neshat is following the uprising in her homeland closely.

Host Deepa Fernandes caught up with the artist to get her views about this protest movement.

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In “Turbulent,” Shirin Neshat’s 1998 two-screen video installation, two singers (Shoja Azari playing the role of the male and Iranian Vocalist and composer Sussan Deyhim as the female) create a powerful musical metaphor for the complexity of gender roles and cultural power within the framework of ancient Persian music and poetry.

Watch on YouTube.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

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