“In Mere Spaces All Things Are Side By Side I” is the first in series of videos exploring the complex adoption and accessibility of the internet in a Developing country. Rather than thinking about technology from a position of privilege, it focuses on the gap, failure, limitation, and the frustration of access to technology.
The videos are primarily inspired by my saved Yahoo chat histories from a 4 year long online relationship when I lived in Iran… but rather than delving into the relationship itself, it creates an imagined space between physical and virtual to connect the failure of the relationship to the failure of technology and communication.
Building 10a / Nolan Park / Governors Island
Open to the Public: Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Holiday Mondays 11 am – 5 pm from June 1 thru August 11, 2019
Morehshin Allahyari (b. 1985 in Tehran, Iran) is a media artist, activist, educator, and curator who uses computer modeling, 3D scanning and digital fabrication techniques to explore the intersection of art and activism. Inspired by concepts of collective archiving, memory, and cultural contradiction, Allahyari’s 3D printed sculptures and videos challenge social and gender norms. “I want my work to respond to, resist and criticize the current political and cultural situation that we experience on a daily basis,” she explains.
She is currently developing a new body of work on digital colonialism and ‘re-figuring’ as a feminist and de- colonialist practice, titled She Who Sees the Unknown. Researching female monsters, jinn and dark goddesses of Middle-Eastern origin, Allahyari devises narratives through practices of magic and poetic-speculative storytelling, re-appropriation of traditional mythologies, collaging, meshing, scanning, and archiving. Continued development of the project is supported by a joint commission from The Whitney Museum of Art, Liverpool Biennale, and FACT, as well as a 2018 Rhizome Commission.
Recent accolades include a residency at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn (2018), Harvestworks, a research residency at Eyebeam Art + Technology Center (2016-17), a sculpture award from the Institute of Digital Art (2016), and Foreign Policy Magazine named her a Leading Global Thinker of 2016. Other outlets featuring her work include Huffington Post, Wired, NPR, National Geographic, Rhizome, Hyperallergic and Dazed Digital. Her work has been part of numerous exhibitions, festivals, and workshops at venues throughout the world, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Centre Pompidou in Paris, France; Venice Biennale di Archittectura; Pori Museum, Finland and Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Germany. Allahyari received her MFA at the University of North Texas, MA at University of Denver and her BA at the University of Tehran, Iran. She is co-creator of the 3D Additivist Manifesto and subsequent 3D Additivist Cookbook.