Details

Title

Possessed

Artist/Maker

Shirin Neshat (Iranian, born 1957)

Date

2001

Medium

16 mm and 35 mm film transferred to digital video

Dimensions

Projection size minimumn 12 feet in width

Credit

Purchase through funds provided by patrons of Collectors Evening 2019

Accession #

2019.189.1-3

Location

Currently not on view

Possessed is arguably one of Shirin Neshat’s most affecting work of art. The film's protagonist, played by actress Shohreh Aghdashloo, madly roams the streets of an Iranian city without wearing a hijab, the compulsory veil imposed upon women after the 1979 revolution. Muttering to herself, she is initially ignored until she ascends a platform where her private suffering becomes a public spectacle. As she shouts, the gathering crowd slowly takes on the violent traits of her madness. She then slips away unnoticed, leaving in her wake a mounting cacophony of violence. The conclusion of the film is ambiguous and unsettling: asking the viewer to consider, has she found freedom as her free-flowing hair would suggest, or does she represent a universal restlessness and discontent brought about by the geopolitical vicissitudes of contemporary world order?

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