Speculations on Capture: Morehshin Allahyari
GAZELL.iO is delighted to present Morehshin Allahyari in our Project Space, coinciding with her April residency as our artist-in-residence. The exhibition features her latest work, Speculations on Capture (2024), a newly commissioned piece recently showcased at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London.
The V&A houses one of the largest collections of Islamic art in the world, with over 19,000 objects spanning the 7th to the early 20th century. Allahyari’s poetic film explores the histories of astronomical instruments crafted in Iran and Pakistan, now held within the museum’s collection. Dating from the 1200s to the 1700s, each object was digitally reconstructed in 3D for this project and appears in the film alongside archival documents and historical photographs. The museum’s records, capturing only fragments of these objects’ narratives, document their arrival between 1865 and 1930, yet provide little insight into how their displacement affected their places of origin and the people connected to them. Their journeys reflect the colonial histories that have shaped Western museum collections. Read more...
