Connecting people through art 

Shirin Neshat’s two-screen video installation Tooba, 2002, was inspired by Shahrnoush Parsipour’s contemporary novel Women Without Men. ‘Tooba’ is the name of a sacred tree mentioned in the Koran, which can offer shelter and blessings to those in need. Rendered entirely in contrasting tones of greenish sepia, Neshat’s video installation Tooba, is a mystical fable setting women and men in opposition. She places the tree in an enclosed garden as a sign of ‘a spiritual longing for paradise and a quest for political power’. Conceived in the form of a poetic allegory, the work reveals that even in paradise there are tensions and conflicts. The invading men and women seek refuge in this paradise garden, just as the woman appears to disappear inside the Tooba tree. The artist notes: “The idea is that they are transcending everyday life and moving into something greater.”