As the USC Fisher Museum of Art, we are excited to share wonderful news about our ever-growing collection! Our education and curatorial departments had teamed up to present a proposal to the Robert Rauschenberg foundation for a chance to win two Shirin Neshat prints, Ghada and Sayed, from the series, Our House is on Fire. The long wait is over, and yes, you guessed it – we were one of the 32 recipient schools to receive the donation!
Shirin Neshat is a contemporary Iranian artist who primarily works in photography, film, and video. She grew up in Tehran, then moved to California to study art during the Iranian Revolution. She received her BA, MA, and MFA from UC Berkeley. Common themes in her work include social, political, and psychological aspects of people undergoing traumatic experiences, particularly women and youth. The Our House is on Fire series stays true to Neshat’s quintessential themes, since it primarily incorporates portraits of youth, with the exception of Ghada and Sayed, which were taken in 2013 during the Arab Spring when the artist was in Egypt.
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Image: Shirin Neshat, Ghada and Sayed (from “Our House is on Fire” series), 2013.