Morehshin Allahyari, Author at Morehshin Allahyari

February 1, 2014

Dark Matter (2014)

Dark Matter is a series of combined, sculptural objects modeled in Maya and 3D printed to form humorous juxtapositions.; The objects chosen for the first series are the objects/things that are banned or un-welcome in Iran by the government. The objects that in many other countries people use or own freely but under Iranian government laws (for several reasons) are forbidden or discouraged to use. Owning some of these objects/things (dog, dildo, gun, neck tie, satellite dish, etc.) means going to jail, or getting a fine, or constantly being under the risk of getting arrested or bothered by the moral police. By printing and bringing the virtual 3D into physical existence, I want to simultaneously resist and bring awareness about the power that constantly threatens, discourages, and actively works against the ownership of these items in Iran. No matter how functional, through 3D printing, I am able to re-create and archive a collection of forbidden objects. In a way, the sculptural objects serve as a documentation of lives (my own life included) lived under oppressions and dictatorship. This is the documentation of a history full of red lines drawn in the most private aspect of one’s life.

What will happen when you re-contextualize the forbidden/banned/taboos? Could inserting the sculptures into another time and space change our relationship to these objects and challenge us to enter an historical dimension of the work? In other words, through positioning the tabooed I want to re-emphasize the dramatic and ironic aspect of forbidden; When looking back in twenty years, how would it feel to re-visit this collection?

Photos by Mario Gallucci

Dark Matter: #buddha #simpson

Dark Matter: #pig #gun

Dark Matter: #barbie #vhs

Morehshin Allahyari - In The Realm of Rare and Analogous Accidents

December 28, 2012

In The Realm of Rare and Analogous Accidents (2013)

Found footage from Gholam Jandarm (1972) – Iran + Rio bravo (1959)- United States

Side by Side; Searching for a relationship that defines the states of belonging; The space in the middle. Questioning the power of the image… the image that guides us. The image that lies.

“Something is of course always lost when we get to see only one side. It is for the exact same reason that one must have the courage to confess the pain of the coma-like contrast of life and cinema. In this scenario, somehow we must put it all together to see the big picture; While in the state of unconsciousness, we are stuck at the thin edge of a screen where two worlds, two countries, and two cities separate for the sake of it. I feel helpless standing in the middle. In this chain of accidents, in this battle of guns and bombs, in the pile of my notes, thoughts, and nostalgic memories of Texas and Tehran, the world lacks trust in common sense.”

(From the text in the video).

November 22, 2012

Re: Apologies to the many wonderful Iranians (2012)

Morehshin Allahyari – Re: Apologies to the many wonderful Iranians

Standing behind the windows; Unable to reach or to pass through. The past and present meeting in one spot; Places and objects slowly fragmenting, deforming, fading in and out, coming together, splitting apart; Witnessing things falling through…The blurry memories of my childhood from war, fusing into the same feelings of numbness and helplessness where I stand today…

Re: Apologies to the Many Wonderful Iranians is an installation that explores and combines personal memories of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988) with the constant awareness of life filled with drumbeats of war against Iran and the intensified sanctions targeting the lives of the Iranian people. It is a response to the recent unethical and proud reports and discussions that praise sanctions and wars on Iran to stop the Iranian government’s nuclear activities; Rejecting and ignoring the results of sanctions on the lives of the ordinary people and their suffering; Forgetting the mentally and emotionally exhausted citizens, floating between political wars. Legitimatizing mass slaughter that sanctions accompany. Keeping the invisible war invisible without filling-in the gaps.

*In Summer of 2012, Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times went to Iran and within his return to the U.S. in one of his reports named Pinched and Griping in Iran (June 2012) wrote:

“…with apologies to the many wonderful Iranians who showered me with hospitality, I favor sanctions because I don’t see any other way to pressure the regime on the nuclear issue or ease its grip on power. My takeaway is that sanctions are working pretty well.”

Morehshin Allahyari – Re: Apologies to the many wonderful Iranians

Photos by Derek Rankins.

October 31, 2012

“Aragh” (2012)

Body sweat gathered from a worker at Sahar1 Offshore oil rig in Persian gulf. Shipped from Persian Gulf to Booshehr and brought on a plane to Tehran by a friend. Carried from Tehran to Dallas on September 13 2012.

Body sweat gathered from a worker at an undisclosed Shell oil rig west of Weatherford, Texas. Received in Terrell, Texas from a friend of a friend. Driven from Terrell to Fort Worth and then to Dallas on October 07 2012.

Oil placed in a essential oil warmer.

Morehshin Allahyari – Aragh

Morehshin Allahyari-Aragh

Morehshin Allahyari - The Recitation of A Soliloquy

February 10, 2012

The Recitation of A Soliloquy (2012)

In 2012, I found a paragraph from my mother’s diary which was written when she was pregnant with me, during Iran-Iraq war. As a recitation of her diary, I’ve written every word 27 times on 27 frames of a 16mm film…. while projecting a Google Earth map of Iran on my face.

“Reading her Mother’s diary, one word-per-frame, under the lens of time accumulated since the time of it’s writing, and of her birth — the time of life. Virtual words, lifted off the page, wriggle like embryos under inquisitive gaze of an interlocutor to whom they are addressed, as if resisting to be born into the world in which war and cruelty are present.”

-Sandra Skurvida

Morehshin Allahyari – The Recitation of A Soliloquy

Morehshin Allahyari - Your Night/My Day Project

February 8, 2012

Your Night / My Day Project (2011-2013)

Your Night/My Day is an online and digital intercultural collaborative art project between artists in Iran and the U.S. which began in the Fall of 2010. Curated by Morehshin Allahyari and Eden Ünlüata, this project explores the process of cultural exchange- or lack thereof – between Iran and the United States. The project employs digital media and online collaboration and serves as a bridge to create an intercultural dialogue and exhibition.

In Your Night/My Day, the process of art making is based on a series of invitations from the curators, called Inspiration Notes featuring topics that are commonly referenced in discussions about culture. Through the Inspiration Notes, teams in each country write instructions in their native language for the opposite team to perform and document. However, before the opposite team receives the instructions, they are sent electronically through an artist/editor from Turkey who put them through Google Translate (Farsi>Turkish>English / English>Turkish>Farsi) and edits them as she sees fit. The translated works then follow the same path back with the Turkish artist editing the artwork at will. Using this multi-part series, we are not only deciphering and depicting the nature of the dysfunctional dialogue between Iranian and American cultures, but through art, we are seeking to fnd paths that may lead to a better understanding of each other as human beings. Your Night/My Day presents the fruit of these two-years; a collection of intercultural pieces designed to celebrate cultural differences and find harmony through art. Participating artists are: Andrew Blanton, Negin Ehtesabian, Zeren Göktan, Patrick Lichty, Vana Nabipour, and Allie Pohl.

For the first time at the University of North Texas, Your Night/My Day displayed the result of this collaboration to the public, beginning March 22 until April 3 at UNT on the Square. Your Night/My Day will be on a travelling tour for the next one year. More info soon. For more information about this project please contact: morehshin@gmail.com or uneden@gmail.com.

***Your Night/ My Day has been brought to UNT by The Contemporary Arab and Muslim Cultural Studies Institute (CAMCSI). For more information about CAMCSI please visit the CAMCSI website or contact Tiffany Floyd.

Morehshin Allahyari – Your Night/My Day Project

January 20, 2012

Over There Is Over Here (2011)

Over There Is Over Here explores the dialectics of time, space, real and unreal to define and explore the position of those who have left Iran versus the political prisoners.

The project uses 3D animation and data glitch as a way to illustrate presence-less presence and to show the passage and collapse of the time. In my recent trip to Iran, I found a picture of political prisoners, which is at least 100years old. Looking at the prisoners chained to each other, I saw a tragic relationship between the past and the present of Iran; a shared pain from the same soul, generation after generation. In my animation, the concept of time is used as a non-linear and collapsed concept in which the past and present have come together in order to create an “unreal” reality. Through a self-reflexive narrator, Over There Is Over Here alternates between the literary definition of a third person narrator to my actual, physical “third person” role outside Iran as narrator of the story. The narrator explores my relationship with imprisoned friends and classmates. In this relationship, I am the outsider who will always fail to understand the reality of a prisoner’s life. The more I live outside Iran, the more I will forget details of the “reality” of life inside Iran. For these reasons, the animation is a deliberate mix of real and unreal, fake and genuine.

January 4, 2012

IRUS Art Project (2008-2010)

IRUS art is an intercultural collaborative art project between the artists in Iran and the U.S. I am the co-founder, organizer, and one of the artists of this project. Our team was consist of eleven artists in Tehran and nine artists in Denver. For one year, we established collaborative projects between our groups. By mailing incomplete artworks from Tehran to Denver and from Denver to Tehran through Istanbul or friends traveling between the two countries (no object can be mailed directly between Iran and U.S.), completing them in our respective cities and sending them back, we have built a collection of completed pieces.Using the theme of “Dialogue,” it was our goal to the perspectives of each group in a respectful, trusting and encouraging manner. In this process, we were not only developing art, but also participating in a functional dialogue with each other as artists and individuals (and not necessarily “nations”). A combination of painting, video art, drawings, photographs, software, street art, and design was featured in Denver at the Andenken gallery in the spring of 2009. A selected version of this show was featured at the Co-Prosperity Sphere gallery in Chicago, January 2010.

Morehshin Allahyari – IRUS Art Project