An exhibition of Aisha Qandisha, a 3D animated video from the series She Who Sees The Unknown by the Brooklyn-based artist Morehshin Allahyari.

Morehshin Allahyari is an artist, activist, writer, and educator, born and raised in Iran who moved to the United States in 2007. Her work deals with the political, social, and cultural contradictions we face every day. In She Who Sees The Unknown, Allahyari uses 3D modeling, 3D scanning, 3D printing, and storytelling to re-create monstrous female/queer figures of Middle Eastern origin. She mines the traditions and myths associated with these supernatural creatures to explore the catastrophes of colonialism, patriarchy, and environmental degradation in relation to the Middle East, “re-figuring” the past to activate and preserve what may have been forgotten or misrepresented.

This project was curated by DC-based artist Jonathan Monaghan.

About the Artist

Morehshin Allahyari is an artist, activist, writer, and educator. She was born and raised in Iran and moved to the United States in 2007. Her work deals with the political, social, and cultural contradictions we face every day. She thinks about technology as a philosophical toolset to reflect on objects and as a poetic means to document our personal and collective lives and struggles in the 21st century. Morehshin has been part of numerous exhibitions, festivals, and workshops around the world including Venice Biennale di Archittectura, New Museum, The Whitney Museum of American Art, Pompidou Center, Museum of Contemporary Art in Montreal, Tate Modern, Queens Museum, Pori Museum, Powerhouse Museum, Dallas Museum of Art, and Museum für Angewandte Kunst. She has been an artist in residence at BANFF Centre (2013), Carnegie Mellon University’s STUDIO for Creative Inquiry (2015), Autodesk Pier9 Workshop in San Francisco (2015), the Vilém Flusser Residency Program for Artistic Research in association with Transmediale, Berlin (2016), Eyebeam’s one year Research Residency (2016-2017) in NYC, Pioneer Works (2018), and Harvest Works (2018). Her work has been featured in The New York Times, BBC, Huffington Post, Wired, National Public Radio, Parkett Art Magazine, Frieze, Rhizome, Hyperallergic, and Al Jazeera, among others. Her 3D Additivist Manifesto video is in the collection of San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and recently she has been awarded major commissions by Rhizome, New Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, Liverpool Biennale, and FACT to work on developing different components of her current project She Who Sees The Unknown.

About the Curator

Jonathan Monaghan examines elements of art history and contemporary culture through an interdisciplinary approach. Drawing on a variety of sources ranging from art history to science fiction, his highly-crafted, fantastical works uncover subconscious anxieties associated with technology and consumerism. His work has been exhibited internationally, including solo exhibitions at The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Spazio Ridotto in Venice, and Market Gallery in Glasgow. Group exhibitions include The Palais de Tokyo in Paris, New Frontier at the Sundance Film Festival, Lehman College Art Gallery in New York, Ars Electronica, and Postmasters Gallery in New York. His work has been featured in The Washington Post, VICE, The Wall Street Journal, and The Village Voice. Monaghan received his BFA from the New York Institute of Technology in 2008 and his MFA from the University of Maryland in 2011.