For Shirin Neshat, “art became a kind of an excuse to build a relationship, even from a distance,” to her homeland and history. Neshat grew up in pre-revolutionary Iran, then came to the U.S. as a student in the 1970s and is now an internationally recognized artist. She was recently interviewed by Jeffrey Brown on the PBS Newshour to look at her latest exhibit, “Shiring Neshat: Facing History” at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washnington, DC. On display until September 20, 2015, the exhibition presents an array of Neshat’s most compelling works, illuminating the points at which cultural and political events have impacted her artistic practice. Commenting on freedom and loss, Neshat’s deeply humanistic art is at once personal, political, and allegorical.
