Close Up Art Analysis Essay

Introduction

Allegiance With Wakefulness is a 1994 work of art by Iranian contemporary artist Shirin Neshat from a photographic series known as Women of Allah. It is an offset black and white photograph of woman's feet with the barrel of a rifle sticking between them. The feet are covered in militant Farsi poetry that depicts the subjugation of women in oppressive Islamic states such as Iran. On the other hand, the rifle symbolizes female empowerment and liberation from religion-based misogyny. It chose this piece of art because I immediately noticed the contrasting images of the feet and the gun, while the text induced an aura of mysteriousness.

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The vividness and elegance portrayed in Allegiance With Wakefulness strike the viewer in a manner that awakens their eyes, within its brilliance resonating in mind. The two beautiful but pale feet appear to have been covered and protected for the owner's entire life. They are small, well-manicured, and innocent; which makes viewers believe that they belong to a woman. The soles are covered with some Arabic writings that form a sharp contrast to the light-colored pale feel. This contrast emphasizes what is written on the soles. A gun barrel sits in between the feet as if it is in a resting position. It is pointed to the right rather than at the viewer, making it clear as two what it is aimed at. The photograph's expressiveness lies in the sharp contrast between the feet's fragile beauty, the calligraphy and floral ornaments inscribed in them, and the pointed gun.

It is clear from the photograph that it is the owner of the feet that is holding the gun. The darkness projected by the gun is used to contrast the feet's paleness, thus depicting a couple of polar opposite objects. The cold, hard barrel and the compassionate feet work hand in hand to induce the feeling in this work of art. Considering that it is titled Allegiance With Wakefulness, the feet covered with Arabic writing depict the allegiance aspect of it. On the other hand, the gun symbolizes that, while the woman still abides by traditional Islamic beliefs, she rebels against any oppressive tendencies directed at women.

Exhibition and analyses of the series of photographs called Women of Allah have been banned in Shirin Neshat's native country. She was hoping to depict the violence that is prevalent in Iran in a feministic manner. Neshat achieves this by utilizing feministic poetry in the form of the writing displayed on the woman's feet. Given that women in her society are downtrodden and oppressed, she decided to highlight it by using female models. The series is her way of expressing her concern for the skirmishes that were witnessed after the 1979 Iranian Revolution. She uses photography to fight the oppression that is rampant in her native country. Her feministic strategies shed new light on what was happening in Iran at the time. The photographs depict the unpleasant truth and pass a message of liberation from violence and oppression.

There is a militant Farsi poem written on the woman's feet that speaks of martyrdom and the sleepless nights that people spent on guard in the course of the Iranian Revolution. The poem may not be set in a woman's world. However, many Iranian women who played an active role in the revolution went through what is described in the photograph. It is evident that Neshat uses feminist poetry that is radical self- revelatory in the Women of Allah series. She chooses this medium to address issues about females who stand at two contrasting positions in the spectrum of Iranian women's experiences. Such women are offered a voice by this poetry, with its divergent contents denying any dismissive claims of what Muslim women go through.

The photograph's background is mainly a plain white color. This strategy makes it possible for the main subject to stand out while allowing the piece of art to highlight the subject's focal points. The women's feet and the writings on them are made to be the center of the work by the gun's barrel. The component presents symmetry in the artwork. There are unusual connection and relationship between the barrel as the dividing object and the woman, and this gives the effect of focality. The inclusion of the gun and its abnormal positioning between the woman's feet -which probably denotes her relation with the weapon- allows the viewer to be drawn to the inscribed poem. Neshat is known to use ink to write poetry in calligraphic writing. In some cases, she includes patterns of Iranian origin. All in all, she does not apply many elaborate techniques for Allegiance With Wakefulness.

The artist uses monochromatic colors such as black and white with the intention of expressing a number of contrasts. These are the polar and paradoxical opposites of male and female, traditional and modern roles, religion versus politics, external and personal conflicts, and so on. The woman's black chador contrasts with the white background while her feet are outlined with black markings in a way that makes them the focal as it highlights her lighter skin color. Such a technique makes the artwork undistracting. It probably reveals the truth behind Neshat's real intention, which is complete transparency to the viewer.

Choice of color in Allegiance With Wakefulness also provides an unfortunate and sad tone of empathetic effect and suffering. It feels as if the woman in the woman in the photograph has experienced a lot of challenges but has accepted and come into terms with them. The notion of suffering as a result of oppression could be because the gun barrel is muzzling her. All in all, the words written on her feet is another language form that allows her to say what she needs to; with the poem being a depiction of it. The artwork also depicts a rather tense moment in that it appears as if it's the woman who is pointing the gun. A Muslim woman holding a gun implies a seemingly 'rude' aspect of females being more empowering when compared to males. Neshat utilizes the rifle-bearing as a feministic strategy or approach aimed at rebelling against certain greater forces, although it is not necessarily men. In addition, the garment that she is wearing can be perceived as despotic and highlight the complex and confusing identities as well as relationships of a Muslim woman.

Allegiance With Wakefulness reminds the viewer of stereotypical perceptions of Muslim women and Muslims in general as observed in print and electronic media. It gives the idea that Islam and the more than a billion people who practice it are often misunderstood; with people having a misguided and overgeneralized view of those who practice it. In addition, it seems as if Muslim women have their own category of stereotypes associated with them both within and outside the Islam religion. The photograph offers the viewer with an opinion that both supports and opposes the idea. Someone may not be sure what message the artist is trying to pass in this work of art. However, it does mirror what the person has seen on media that is related to the photograph.

It is worth looking at the personal and wider context of the artwork. When Shirin Neshat completed her education in the United States, she did not return to her native homeland immediately. She stayed in America for seventeen years before going back to Iran. When she eventually returned, the Iran she found was completely different from what she knew when growing up. She grew up before Iran's Islamic revolution during the 1960s and 1970s where women were allowed to dressing in western attires. This is in sharp contrast with the chadors that women were supposed to wear upon her return. What Neshat found spurred her to change the manner in which she created art so that she could produce works such as Allegiance With Wakefulness. For instance, the mode of dressing that has changed in Iran is used as a basis of what the woman in the photograph is wearing. Her artwork is a reflection of how Iranian woman are depicted nowadays.

In her works of art, Neshat applies cultural, social, religious, and political aspects. She does this to induce contrasting effects and dichotomy. However, it is the political aspect that influences her works most. This political link was inspired by a change of leadership that affected the way Islam religion developed in Iran. A good example is Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, who took over power in 1941. While he was considered an oppressive ruler in many aspects, he managed to introduce modernization, economic development, and secularization in the country. His leadership was widely criticized by other Islamic leaders as he allowed the Western culture to eclipse Islam traditions. Mohammed Reza Pahlavi was overthrown in 1979 during the Islamic revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini and others. However, the new regime turned out to be as oppressive as the previous one, if not worse.

The change in leadership had a major impact on religion and culture as well as social interactions among citizens. When Neshat returned to Iran from America, she began working on the Women of Allah series that mirrored the political and cultural changes. The major change in dynamics that Neshat experienced spurred her to apply these elements in her artwork. It enabled her to adopt a more modern concept for how Islamic identity, community, and women are perceived by non-Muslims. Her personal vision changed how she went about creating art. Her area of interest revolved around Muslim women's identity and their relationships with God, the society, politics, and violence. All this is evident in the Women of Allah series.

Conclusion

In her work of art titled Allegiance With Wakefulness, Shirin Neshat is trying to paint a picture of what people in the West think of Muslims. She highlights the stereotypical image of guns, veils, interactions, and Arabic texts. However, despite the fact that Muslim women are oppressed and downtrodden, they still manage to have a voice. The artist creates a voice for herself via the influence of women from Iran and then applies it to her works by inscribing text on various parts of subjects' face. The inscriptions on the subject's feet may appear submissive and resigned. However, they symbolize the fact that Muslim women do have a voice despite not appearing to have one.

Bibliography

Dadi, Iftikhar. "Shirin Neshat's photographs as postcolonial allegories." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 34, no. 1 (2008): 125-150.

Moore, Lindsey. "Frayed connections, fraught projections: The troubling work of Shirin Neshat." Women: A cultural review 13, no. 1 (2002): 1-17.