Shirin Neshat: The Home of My Eyes is the exhibition that will mark the opening of YARAT Contemporary Art Centre in Baku on 24 March 2015. Also on view will be an exhibition from YARAT’s permanent collection, with work by artists from the Caucasus, Central Asia and neighbouring countries alongside work by international artists whose work has a resonance with Azerbaijan. The collection itself has been built over the past three years and will continue to grow in part through special commissions for exhibitions at YARAT Contemporary Art Space curated by Suad Garayeva,
The Home of My Eyes’s focus is a major new commission, produced following Shirin Neshat’s time in Azerbaijan alongside two of Neshat’s earlier works, the seminal video installations Soliloquy (1999) and Passage (2001) and is guest curated by Dina Nasser Khadivi.
Shirin Neshat’s work has explored the complexities of cultural identity, gender and power to express a vision that embraces Persian traditions and contemporary concepts of individuality. In her recent photographic work, Neshat has focused on the portrait as a prism to reveal the cultural dynamics and personal histories of her subjects, exploring the narratives that can be ‘read’ in an individual.
“I consider the new series of images a portrait of a country that has for so long been a crossroads for many different ethnicities, religions, and languages. This series combines 55 portraits of men and women from different generations to create a tapestry of human faces which pays tribute to the rich cultural history of Azerbaijan and its diversity”. Shirin Neshat
This new commission, The Home of My Eyes (2015), builds on Neshat’s growing interest in portraiture. During time spent in Azerbaijan in 2014, Neshat photographed over 50 individuals who came from communities across the country, of ages ranging from two to eighty years old. While making the photographs Neshat asked participants a series of questions regarding their cultural identity and their concept of home. The resulting responses are written in calligraphy that overlays the portraits.
The Home of my eyes
Shirin Neshat
Curated by Dina Nasser Khadivi
24 March – 23 June 2015
YARAT Contemporary Art Centre
Sabail District, Baku, Azerbaijan
www.yarat.az
Images credit
Copyright Shirin Neshat, Courtesy of the artist and Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels:
. Shirin Neshat, Javid, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015
. Shirin Neshat, Akram, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015
. Shirin Neshat, Gizbasti, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015
. Shirin Neshat, Vladimir, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015
. Shirin Neshat, Nazakat, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015
Shirin Neshat with Hagigat Dadashova and an assistant from YARAT, during the photo shoot of The Home of My Eyes in Baku, October 2014. Photograph by David Jimenez
