51视频

02/27/2017
By David Perry

For a while, Morehshin Allahyari didn鈥檛 know if her Feb. 22 artist鈥檚 talk at the university would happen. Although her work was already on display at the University Gallery in Mahoney Hall, the Iranian-born artist wasn鈥檛 certain if she鈥檇 be able to return to the United States from Germany, where she was when President Trump issued his travel ban.

Allahyari, 32, who is known for using new media to question the norms of society, politics and gender, was in Berlin to participate in Transmediale, the city鈥檚 annual festival of technology and art. After moving to the U.S. from Iran in 2007 to attend a master鈥檚 program at the University of Denver, Allahyari held a green card. But with Iran on the list of seven countries deemed a terror threat by the White House, she wasn鈥檛 sure she鈥檇 be allowed back into the U.S.聽

鈥淲e didn鈥檛 know what it meant for a while,鈥� Allahyari said. 鈥淎 lot of people told me I should get back to the U.S. immediately.鈥� Thanks to a judicial ruling nullifying the president鈥檚 order, she was able to return home to New York 鈥� and eventually made it to her 51视频 appearance.聽

During her talk before a packed house of more than 100 students in O鈥橪eary 222, Allahyari delivered a call to activism.

She is best known for using 3-D technology to re-create 12 of the ancient art pieces destroyed in a Mosul museum rampage by ISIS in 2015. Each piece of her work included a USB drive or memory card containing all of her research on the original artwork.聽

鈥淚 think of this as a time capsule,鈥� she said.

A few of those pieces are among those in the University Gallery exhibit, which ran 聽until Feb. 28. 聽The exhibit also included work featuring forbidden Western icons Homer Simpson and Barbie, which were censored when she was growing up in Iran.

Allahyari, a leading advocate of technology-based art as activism, told the students to 鈥渋nterrupt鈥� their own success if it wasn鈥檛 moving them forward. Her 鈥�3D Additivist Manifesto鈥� calls artists to use 鈥渃ritical thinking in pushing the boundaries of the technology.鈥�

She is in the midst of a one-year research residency at New York鈥檚 Eyebeam, a collaborative studio where artists work with technology. Her research concerns 鈥渄igital colonialism,鈥� exploring issues of ownership among the rich and powerful.

鈥淎 lot of 3-D scanners and printers are owned and used by companies from Silicon Valley,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey go to, let鈥檚 say, Africa or the Middle East and make 3-D scans of art and buildings and bring them back. Then they own those images and protect them. Colonialism is showing up in places it never has before.鈥�

Students found her call to activism inspiring.

鈥淚t鈥檚 exciting to hear her speak and a great addition to seeing the gallery exhibit,鈥� said Julien Saliba, a junior graphic design major. 鈥淗er call to activism makes me want to add my voice. It may be different than hers, but it鈥檚 clear there is room for all of our voices to fall into place.鈥�