The character arc of Shirin Neshat

A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record

Born 26 March 1957 in Qazvin, Iran. Between then and now sit a departure for California in 1975 to study, a revolution in 1979 that changed the country she had left, a first return in 1990 that she has described as one of the most shocking experiences of her life, the Women of Allah photographs, the International Award at the Venice Biennale in 1999, and a directing prize at the Venice Film Festival in 2009. The line below draws the story so far, in order.

Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of her life; the sources are at the foot of the page.

Who is Shirin Neshat?

She went away to study, and the country changed behind her.

She was born in Qazvin in 1957 and left Iran in 1975, at eighteen, to study art at the University of California at Berkeley. It was supposed to be an education, not an emigration. In 1979 the revolution remade the country she had left, and the Iran she had grown up in no longer existed to go back to. She stayed in America, finished her degrees, and for a long stretch made almost no work at all.

She returned for the first time in 1990, a year after the death of Ayatollah Khomeini, and has described it as one of the most shocking experiences she has had: everything familiar, and nothing the same. That visit is the origin of the work. Between 1993 and 1997 she made Women of Allah, portraits of veiled women overlaid with Persian calligraphy, which put her name into the international art world and set the subject she has kept ever since, the lives of Iranian women.

The video installations Turbulent and Rapture won the International Award at the Venice Biennale in 1999. She moved into film, and her first feature, Women Without Men, took the Silver Lion for best director at the Venice Film Festival in 2009. Looking for Oum Kulthum followed in 2017 and Land of Dreams in 2021, and in 2022 a work of hers was shown on the screens at Piccadilly Circus. She has lived and worked in New York throughout, in exile from the country that is the subject of nearly everything she has made. Her line is worth reading because the distance from the subject is the reason the work exists.

The moments

Shirin Neshat's timeline.

The 1970s

~1975

She left Iran to study

Milestone, and it changed everything. Eighteen years old, leaving for an education, with every expectation of coming home afterwards.

Feb 1979

The revolution, from far away

Setback, and it changed everything. The country she had left stopped existing in the form she knew, and she watched it happen from California.

The 1990s

~1990

She went back, at last

Milestone, and it changed everything. Everything familiar and nothing the same. The visit is the origin of every work she has made since.

1 Jun 1991

Make work about Iran, or not

Crossroads, decided.

The paths laid out: make the country the subject, taken, or work on something else. Women of Allah followed from 1993, the Venice International Award in 1999 and the Silver Lion in 2009, and she has worked in exile ever since.

~1993

Women of Allah begins

Milestone, and it changed everything. The series that made her name, and fixed the subject she has kept for thirty years.

Jun 1999

The Venice International Award

Milestone, and it changed everything. The top honour of the Biennale that year, for work shown on two facing screens.

The 2000s

~2000

Working in exile

Setback, and it changed everything. The subject of almost everything she makes is a place she cannot simply travel to and film.

Sep 2009

Silver Lion for directing

Milestone, and it changed everything. A visual artist walking into cinema and taking a directing prize with a first film.

The 2010s

~2017

Looking for Oum Kulthum

Milestone. A film about an Egyptian singer, and about a woman trying to make a film about her.

The 2020s

~2021

Land of Dreams

Milestone. Her third feature, made in America, about collecting other people's dreams.

Nov 2022

Piccadilly Circus, for a woman

Milestone, and it changed everything. Not a gallery. One of the most looked at advertising sites in Europe, given over to a single face.

~2024

The Fury, in Berlin

Milestone. A recent body of work, still on the same subject, nearly fifty years after she left.

The line reaches today still adding to itself, which is why it is drawn now rather than at the end. What it has set moving is a body of images that put Iranian women in front of an audience that had only been shown them as a category, made by someone who had to leave in order to look.

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Shirin Neshat: frequently asked questions

What people ask about her line.

What is Shirin Neshat's character arc?

A student who left Iran for a few years and never got the country back. Born in Qazvin in 1957, she went to California in 1975, the revolution of 1979 remade her homeland while she was away, and she built a career making art about the women who stayed.

What were the turning points in Shirin Neshat's life?

Leaving Iran in 1975 changed everything, though nobody knew it at the time. The revolution of 1979 made the departure permanent. Her first return in 1990 gave her the subject, the Women of Allah series from 1993 made her name, and Venice in 1999 confirmed it.

Why did Shirin Neshat leave Iran?

To study. She left in 1975, at eighteen, for the University of California at Berkeley, expecting to come home afterwards. The revolution of 1979 changed the country she had left, and she did not see Iran again until 1990, a year after the death of Ayatollah Khomeini.

What is Shirin Neshat best known for?

Women of Allah, the photographic series she made between 1993 and 1997, in which portraits of veiled women are overlaid with Persian calligraphy. Also the video installations Turbulent and Rapture, which won the International Award at the Venice Biennale in 1999.

What was Shirin Neshat's biggest setback?

Losing access to her own subject. She has lived and worked in New York for decades, making art about a country she is not in, which means the place at the centre of nearly everything she has made is not one she can simply travel to and film.

Has Shirin Neshat made films?

Yes. Her first feature, Women Without Men, won the Silver Lion for best director at the Venice Film Festival in 2009. She co-directed Looking for Oum Kulthum in 2017 and Land of Dreams in 2021, both with Shoja Azari.

What has Shirin Neshat made recently?

In 2022 a work of hers responding to the death in custody of Mahsa Amini was shown on the screens at Piccadilly Circus in London, rather than in a gallery. The Fury was exhibited at Fotografiska Berlin in 2024, on the same subject she has kept throughout.

Where does this timeline of Shirin Neshat's life come from?

From the public record. Character Arc drew every moment on this line from the sources listed at the foot of the page, and the kind and weight of each moment are our editorial reading. Shirin Neshat isn't a Member of Character Arc and has no connection with it, and no feeling is attributed to her.

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Sources

Shirin Neshat, English Wikipedia biography.
Venice Biennale 1999, International Award record.
66th Venice Film Festival, Silver Lion for Best Director, 2009.