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Shirin Neshat The Book Of Kings Analysis

Decent Essays

Shirin Neshat’s “The Book of Kings”, (2012), satisfies the conditions of global art, through exposure garnered by the process of globalisation to adapt to shifting trends in contemporary culture. Specific shifting trends include a growth in the use of social media and the adaptation of the museum to social trends. These trends have contributed to a developing standard of a ‘need’ or ‘expectation’ to diversify and appease spectacle culture outside of predominant “modern” art that relate with “western” connotations . The diversification entails a global art practice with the inclusion of varying traditions that demand differing local narratives . Neshat adapts to the shifting trends of contemporary culture by being one of a growing number of …show more content…

The art scene of the Middle East has been historically patriarchal in nature and “The Book of Kings”, (2012) is her response to the shifting cultural landscape on the contemporary stage. The photographic series contains multiple self-portraits each annotated with poetry and prison writings in Farsi . The series fulfils the conditions of global art as Neshat provides a display to the museum through a representation, albeit a personal one, of a cultural narrative that would be censored in Iranian politics . The fulfilment of the diversification of local narratives is present as she presents to a global audience a contradictory stance in portraying the Middle Eastern landscape. Specifically, a criticism of the Iranian government, in relation to its religious persecution of individuals. Neshat demonstrates this representation through the blending of “local” to the historical. Mainly the 7th Century Islamic conquest of Persia interweaving it with recent events including the Arab Spring and Iranian Green Movement . Neshat’s purpose for blending these events not only juxtapose but also criticise the government in these events “in the name of justice across the Middle East and Arab World” . Neshat’s fulfilment of global art conditions is similarly interweaved in the work of Emily

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