SHIRIN NESHAT, TURBULENT, 1998

Two-channel video: "Male" and "Female" (b/w, sound, 10 min.)

“Turbulent is one of Neshat’s most critically acclaimed films, having been awarded the Lion d’or at the Venice Biennale in 1999. It was also her first foray into the realm of video, a medium that subsequently has played a major role in her artistic production. A consistent theme in her work has been the recognition of sharply-delineated binaries concerning gender roles in Iranian society, and she highlights these dichotomies literally in black and white without the promise of synthesis or resolution in these two films. Turbulent consists of two films displayed on opposite walls. It is impossible to watch them simultaneously so the viewer must choose where to direct his or her attention immediately upon entering the display space, taking sides in the gendered competition that consists of dueling approaches to the performance of poetry by Rumi, the Persian mystic poet. The male singer begins first, performing Rumi’s love poem in a beautiful and lyrical way to an appreciative audience in an auditorium. The female singer then begins her rendition on the opposite wall in a non-traditional vocalization that is full of passion but perhaps more dissonant. She performs, however, in an empty hall, as women are prohibited from singing in public in post-revolutionary Iran. In these simple, black and white films, then, Neshat chose not to present a narrative or tell a story. Instead she employed both visual and aural modes to convey intense emotion differentiated along gendered lines.” - Miami Rail