Morehshin Allahyari’s “Huma and Talismans” (2016) at Transfer gallery (photo by the author for Hyperallergic)
Last fall, artist Morehshin Allahyari transformed Bushwick’s Transfer gallery into a study-cum-shrine. Spotlit inside the darkened space was the artist’s first 3D-printed jinn, Huma, a three-headed demon that causes fevers and illness. In the process of learning about and creating her own version of Huma, Allahyari was reclaiming the goddess, reimagining its evil powers as a potential good. She saw this as a feminist act and a step toward cultural decolonization.
Currently a resident at Eyebeam, Allahyari will continue her investigation of these ideas with an event on the evening of Saturday, May 27. The night of performances and discussion will revolve around “‘re-figuring’ and fabulation as an activist, feminist practice of reimagining the past in order to create multiple alternative worlds and futures.” To that end, Allahyari has invited four artists, activists, and scientists — Gelare Khoshgozaran, Nooshin Rostami, Ida Momennejad, and Maryam Darvishi — to join her in reconfiguring the space as a series of “fabulation stations,” where the practitioners will present their own projects. Collectively, they’ll explore myths, the malleability of time, colonialism, and the potency of storytelling.
When: Saturday, May 27, 5–8pm (RSVP)
Where: Eyebeam (34 35th Street, Sunset Park, Brooklyn)
More info here.
