Statement:

Dirimart announces the exhibition of Shirin Neshat's latest body of work, The Fury, comprising a double-channel video installation and a series of black-and-white photographs.

Shot in June 2022, The Fury seeks to capture the Zeitgeist: a sense of foreboding and dread sparked by the resurgence of fascism we are witnessing.///

While The Fury can be viewed as a continuation of Neshat's exploration of the female body in the context of theocratic politics and gender apartheid, its unfolding in New York City drives home its international charge.

In a highly fictionalised and stylised way, Neshat's new video installation addresses the sexual exploitation of women as political prisoners.

Subjected to severe torture, and sexual assault, including rape, it is commonly known that even after being released, many of the women are unable to recover emotionally from the trauma experienced in prison, and often commit suicide.

The video traces the psychological and emotional journey of a young Iranian woman who, although now living freely in the United States, remains traumatised by her memories in captivity.

Shown alongside the video, the photographic series focuses more directly on the female body as both an object of desire and of violence. The bodies of the subjects are abused, sometimes mutilated and bear physical signs of social alienation.

The message is clear: the bedrock of power and authoritarianism is the subjugation and control of the female body. With hand-inscribed calligraphy of poems by Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzad (1934–1967), these portraits of a diverse selection of women of all races, creeds and ethnicities convey a sense of beauty, dignity, confidence, and pride, yet pain, vulnerability, and trauma.

For decades, Neshat's expansive body of work has focused on the problematics of the female body in Islamic cultures, specifically in relation to her country, Iran, and the way in which the female body has continued to be a contested space for sin, shame, desire, repression, political & religious ideology, while also rebellion, power and protest. 

The Fury builds upon this legacy of interrogating and spotlighting issues that impact women both in Iran and globally.