Shirin Neshat: Rapture December 12, 2010

Iranian-born Shirin Neshat has played a pivotal role in discourse about identity and gender in her native country and the Islamic faith. Influential art critic Arthur Danto has called 'Rapture (1999),' an 11-minute video and sound installation, Neshat's masterpiece. Projected onto opposite screens, the highly-stylized Rapture shows what Neshat has called "an allegorical duel" between white-shirted men occupying a seaside fortress on one side and, on the other, black-veiled women moving from a desert to the beach outside the fortress. The stark beauty of the landscapes, the contrasting poses and actions of the actors, and the layered soundtrack create a hypnotic, encompassing experience.