an awesome visual artist and a poet

Shirin Neshat on poetry and metaphor in Iranian art:

"Some tendencies are really inherent in an artist and I think the visual language, the poetics [in my work] is because I'm Iranian. Because of the way I deal with the world and because I'm so emotional and because of the way I express myself -- it is so Iranian. Maybe all the Iranians really like the poetic language. For me poetry is religion... Iranian people have also suffered many political hardships over the time of history and poetry has been a system that has allowed them to survive and transcend the pain, but also to express themselves."

At some point one must reveal the artists that one looks to that drives their own art. Aside from Shirin Neshat, there is Jenny Holzer, and the mesmerizing Sophie Calle.