Neshat Shirin - Unveiling (from Women of Allah) 1993 — printed 2015

Unveiling (from Women of Allah) 1993 — printed 2015

Artist: Shirin Neshat (b. 1957, Iran)

Technique:  Ink on gelatin silver print, flush-mounted

Date of creation: 1993 — printed 2015

Dimensions: 149.6 × 100.3 cm

Edition / Authenticity: 10 + 2 Artist's Proofs, Signed, titled, dated 1993/2015 and numbered in ink on a label on the reverse

Description: 

Unveiling (1993/2015) is one of the foundational works of Shirin Neshat's Women of Allah series — the body of photographs that established her as one of the most important artists working in the intersection of photography, identity, politics, and gender at the close of the twentieth century. A woman's face looks directly at the viewer from within a black chador, her gaze level, steady, and entirely unyielding. Across the chador and across her face, dense lines of Farsi calligraphy — poetry by Iranian women writers — flow in white ink, covering the image like a second skin or a veil within the veil.

The work operates with extraordinary precision on multiple registers simultaneously. The veil, here, is not absence but presence — not erasure but inscription, the text a form of identity rather than its suppression. The poetry written across the fabric and skin conflates body, language, and garment into a single surface, suggesting that the woman is not hidden beneath the text but constituted by it, that subjectivity is written as much as lived. The direct gaze — unmediated, unsmiling, confrontational — refuses the passivity the Western viewer might bring to the image of a veiled woman, replacing it with something that demands to be met on its own terms.

The Women of Allah series was produced between 1993 and 1997, in the years following Neshat's return to Iran after more than a decade in the United States. The works were first exhibited in 1993 and immediately recognised as a landmark statement — not about Islam or Iran specifically, but about the relationship between the female body, political power, language, and representation in any culture that inscribes its values on women's appearance. Neshat's work is held in the permanent collections of MoMA, the Guggenheim, the Whitney, the Tate, and the Pompidou.

This impression — numbered 1/10, the first of an edition of just 10 plus 2 artist's proofs — is a large-format gelatin silver print with hand-applied ink, flush-mounted, signed, titled, and dated on a label on the reverse. At 149.6 × 100.3 cm, the work is monumental in scale, the face life-size or larger, the confrontation between image and viewer fully physical

FAQ 

Is this an original Shirin Neshat work? Yes — an original gelatin silver print with hand-applied ink, flush-mounted, signed, titled, and dated on a label on the reverse, from an edition of 10 plus 2 artist's proofs. This example is numbered 1/10.

What is the Women of Allah series? Women of Allah (1993–1997) is Shirin Neshat's landmark series of large-format photographs in which the female body, the veil, and Farsi poetry are combined to interrogate the relationship between gender, religion, political power, and representation. It is widely regarded as one of the most important bodies of photographic work produced in the 1990s.

What is the Farsi text on the image? The calligraphy is poetry by Iranian women writers, hand-applied by Neshat in ink over the gelatin silver print — making each impression a unique handmade object within the edition.

What is the edition size? 10 impressions plus 2 artist's proofs — an exceptionally small edition for a work of this scale and historical significance. This example is numbered 1/10.

What does "flush-mounted" mean? Flush-mounting is a presentation technique in which the print is adhered directly to a rigid support with no overlap, creating a seamless, flat surface. It is the standard museum presentation for large-format photographs of this type.

Do you ship internationally? Yes — worldwide, with specialist packaging suited to large-format flush-mounted works, full insurance, and shipment tracking. Please contact us to discuss logistics.