Passages
by Pasadena Adjacent
Death, mourning and ritual are at the heart of Passage 2001. The single screen work by Iranian-born artist Shirin Neshat, with music by Philip Glass, was viewed at the Nevada Museum of Art in 2011. The video features 3.17 seconds of an 11 minute film.
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Pasadena Adjacent 
Our Editor Responds: I wish I could give you the entire package. It appears to be unavailable. I found the work hypnotic. Especially the women robotically clawing at the earth. Eerie
05/05/99 Big Fred
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I’m confused. Can you give some expert commentary?
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Our Editor Responds: Scant information on this piece Margaret. In short; it’s a ritualized burial. The men bring in a body wrapped in white cloth – the women form a circle and dig the earth – the child lights the fire. “Open ended” as they say.
I suspect this won’t be a popular post but I found the film and score moving
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Well, let me watch this a few times to see if I get the hang of it. After all, it took me years to appreciate Glass. It’s funny, though, when you see footage of the Iranians in this way (and you often do), because some of the most sophisticated, cosmopolitan people I know are Iranian.
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Our Editor Responds: Maybe the ritual is referencing Zoroastrianism??? Good point though. In the TED interview she talks about a time before Iran was “Islamisized” and democracy reigned; before US involvement. – And while she was a student at Berkeley. When she eventually returned to Iran, she started using what she saw there, in her work. Since you know some Iranians, could you send them this way? This editor can respond only so much
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That is a mesmerizing work.
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Our Editor Responds: despite the the cuts and background noise, it’s an attempt to portray a bit of the experience
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I wish I could see the entire film. Here’s to Big Fred.
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Our Editor responds: Heres to Big Fred – 13 years now.
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Our Editor Responds:
“Glass commissioned the film as part of his Philip on Film Tour in 2001. The idea of “revers[ing] the typically director-driven process of choosing music for a film.” The result here is a piece in which the visual and musical elements meet on effectively equal terms. Glass relies heavily on repetition with minor changes as things progress. Neshat describes his work as being “about sound.” The score in Passage is an example of his repetitive structure, with the desired effect of mesmerizing the listener. A funeral procession becomes an appropriate complement to the action of the film. The women’s chanting is the only human voice in the film.
Passages is about ‘feeling’ more then narrative. illusive, yet understandable; readable, but only vaguely articulable; like listening to music without words.”
Sound and image
Shirin Neshat: Passage
By Stephen Cummings
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“Passages is about ‘feeling’ more then narrative. illusive, yet understandable; readable, but only vaguely articulable . . .” That’s pretty close to a description/definition of poetry as well as the film. I like it, though I don’t pretend to understand what I’m supposed to understand about it.
Without your explanation, I saw the approach of the men as menacing–confident, steady but aggressive, irrevocable. Whatever the women’s digging meant literally, it seemed frantic, a desire to escape or obey. Then, maybe there’s something hopeful about the girl’s separation from them. First she’s hidden for awhile behind the stones–at least an illusion of protection–and of course in the end she’s more or less throwing a ring of fire around everybody, an act of power.
It’s a powerful film. Would I want 17 minutes of it?
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Our Editor Responds: When I saw this film in it’s entirety, it’s date of creation being 2001, I expected it to be an artist in exile critique of either Islam or the West. Much emphasis was put on the circle of chanting women diggers (which becomes more intense)….the child repeating the circular form in rocks… Truely, I expected someone to get stoned! And it didn’t happen…. So I sat through the film again to tape it in narrative sections. Beginning – middle and end. On the second viewing, I saw the implied narrative as relating to the ancient truth of Destruction, Death and Renewal. The child absorbs the ritual as play. Like some trees that don’t reseed unless the forest burns; the child lights the match. A little bit like your poem
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Good info. Thanks, PA. In case it’s not obvious, this is one of my favorites of your posts.
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Our Editor Responds: It kind of surprised me when your comment exceeded a couple of sentences; so yes, it did occur to me. You do realize your in the minority?
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Mine too, Banjo. Not all understanding is intellectual. A ritual is often understood by the heart or the gut, not always by the mind. I love the primitivism of this and for some reason I get it, though I couldn’t tell you what that reason is or what it is I get. There’s such a thing as sense memory or species memory and we all have it; it’s less buried in some than in others.
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Our Editor Responds: I like your interpretation best. It has a bit of a Jungian twist to it.
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PA: Looking in the dictionary for a definition of eclectic, I found you.
Keep it up, kiddo–
and I love Philip Glass.
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Our Editor Responds: compliments of the ADD mindset
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ooooh I love Shirin Neshat!
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Our Editor Responds: I’m glad you enjoyed the post
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I think if you want to find true meaning in life you have to become a bit of a liturgist, maybe not full-fledged, but you at least have to be able to recognize process: the beginning of a journey, the arrival, and then the return. And always regrouping to begin again. Since I didn’t see the entire film I can only think that this is also a statement about what Muslim women can and will do for the dead since they’re not allowed to attend burials. It’s heart breaking to see them digging like that, I cannot imagine what it’s like to lose someone you love and not be able to bear witness to the completion of the journey of their life. Beautifully done, Miss Liz.
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Our Editor Responds: You’ve brought forth a layer of information I had no idea about. I went to “ask a Iman” and was shocked, not only by the prophets “proclaimed law” but by contemporary women trying to absorb (and accept) the information. Odd, women bring life into the world through blood sweat and pain, but too emotional to be there in its end? I think what the prophet feared most was the power that ancient women held in making grief a public act; cutting, wailing, tearing of cloth <– a relationship to giving birth? and the women forming a circle? ovum, breast, igloo; the most feminized of geometry. Thank you Miss Paula
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I watched the entire video while sleepy and with a headache today. Yet it seemed meditative and I got through all of it! I doubt if I grasped the full meaning of this. Like KB, I wood need to watch it a couple more times to get a better grip on it. Perhaps by then, PA, the full version will be found.
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Our Editor Responds: All of it? kudos dog. You may have to drag yourself to a museum to see it in it’s entirety. It appears to be a private commission by NY gallerist Barbara Goldstone.
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I did a little reading and I think it’s largely a cultural restriction. Since Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are all rooted in blood sacrifice I have to think that the hadith/restriction must relate to women’s menstrual blood as unclean.That’s such a prevalent belief across cultures that I would be surprised to find it not be a factor here.
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Our Editor Responds: A little more digging (pun) The exclusion of women at funerals is an Arab practice and not Iranian.
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I’m still digesting this. The opening scene along the ocean with that grounded flock of black birds, the women in burkas, takes my breath away. And the frantic digging, the undulations of the whole, the fire, death. This is as powerful as the opening of 2001, A Space Odyssey, and seems as primal and symbolic. I think the music really enhances the impact, like an industrial post-apocalyptic dirge. Reading the other comments one cannot ignore the cultural context. It begs many viewings and some research to grasp more fully, but the impact is not diminished without clarifications…
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Our Editor Responds: You are versatile. Not only to you express yourself well visually – but also on the page. “industrial post-apocalyptic dirge” is a much better description then mine –>”drone”
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I’m really impressed by the fact that these responses are so varied, yet not at odds with each other. They’re reasonable and valid, if that’s the right word (legitimate? convincing?). I still wonder if 17 minutes of the film would feel like overkill or become didactic, but given the richness of these three video minutes, I’d probably be willing to try. Smart audience here, PA, including your own comments.
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Our Editor Responds: Thanks – I must say, although this post drew less of a crowd, the comments were richer. It’s 11 minutes; you’d make it through. I have faith in you
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Fascinating, the film and the commentary. Visually it’s beautiful. I agree with you that the women clawing at the earth is hypnotic and eerie. What is that first image? Is it a still from the film?
The few Iranian films I’ve seen over the years were so compelling. (Had to google to refresh my memory but here are two filmmakers worth checking out – I’m sure there are many more – Makhmalbaf and Kiarostami.) Iran has a rich cinematic history, and as Shirin Neshat says in the TED video, Iranian artists can’t ignore the political. Wish I had more time to explore their work. Rich stuff.
This reminds me I still want to see the Iranian film that won the Oscar this year, “The Separation.” Have you seen it?
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Our Editor Responds: The still photograph of the two hands is an unrelated work by Neshat from a series called “Women Without Men” as is the upper (flipping the page) photo from from the contents of a book about her work.
Wouldn’t you love to see this piece in person. I liked Stick Up artist’ description of a “industrial post-apocalyptic dirge” The piece is commissioned and owned by Barbara Gladstone (NY gallery) so it makes it’s way around art institutions and nowhere else it seems. And why I haven’t tagged the wee video (a “wee” crime). I’m off Netflix at the moment, so I haven’t seen The Separation, but I will….I’m glad you watched the TED interview
http://www.gladstonegallery.com/neshat.asp?id=2628
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I was looking for Pasadena Passages and your post popped up. Just what I needed right now for a whole ‘nuther reason.
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