Morehshin Allahyari

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.

Born and raised in Tehran, Allahyari extends these incomplete narratives, merging historical facts with speculative fiction to imagine lost encounters, diverted knowledge, and inaccessible cultural histories. Her work disrupts conventional museum frameworks, challenging the power dynamics of institutional collections while re-establishing connections between objects and their original histories, cultures, and communities. By transcending the limitations of archives, Allahyari envisions alternative pasts and possible futures for these artefacts.

Allahyari has been instrumental in conceptualising the term “digital colonialism,” describing how technological tools can perpetuate colonial power structures. She reinterprets the act of scanning as an embodied, performative gesture with open-ended political implications, proposing, “Put it to use. Let it colonize the colonizers.” In her work, Allahyari engages with replicas of Middle Eastern cultural artefacts, narrating their long histories as symbols and relics while simultaneously performing ritualised 3D scans of each object. Alongside technologist Rosalie Yu, she explores how digital reconstruction can function as a means of reclaiming narratives, revealing technology’s capacity to either erase or preserve cultural memory.

Through speculative storytelling, historical excavation, and digital intervention, Allahyari’s practice serves as a form of resistance — challenging institutional authority over cultural narratives and advocating for new ways of engaging with heritage. Her work reminds us that history is not static, and by reinterpreting the past, we shape the possibilities of the future. Commission supported by the Manitou Fund, Kevin, Rosemary, and Hannah Rose McNeely.