photography

Allegiance with Wakefulness, Shirin Neshat

"One thing I find really striking about this photograph is the contrast between that gun barrel, which so obviously connotes aggression, and those pale, soft feet, which seem tender and almost vulnerable," notes Eric Paddock, the DAM's curator of photography.

Of her Women of Allah photographic series, Shirin Neshat says "we are confronted with threatening images of women embracing the gun, yet there is something terribly submissive, erotic, and sensual about the female bodies."

Allegiance with Wakefulness is on view in Exposure: Photos from the Vault from April 30 through October 31, 2010.