Morehshin Allahyari: I think about it as both art and activism. Isaac Kaplan: Do you think of “Material Speculation: ISIS” as art or activism? Are those categories distinct? I corresponded with Allahyari over email about the origins of the series, the role of art in the battle against ISIS, and her plans to allow us all to join in her resistance by distributing the artifacts’ 3D-printable files for free on the internet. There is no doubt that 3D printing will reshape our world, but the question of how the cutting-edge medium will become entwined with the ancient remains ripe for, well, material speculation. They’re not replacements, as such, but rather new objects that speak to the history of the Middle East while maintaining the poetic, elegiac quality of a message-in-a-bottle or a funeral mask.īroadly speaking, Allahyari’s thoughtful use of 3D printing provides a glimpse into a technologically driven future. The product of painstaking research, each sculpture is embedded with a chip that contains archival data about the original artifact. On view through March 19th at Toronto’s Trinity Square Video, the works unabashedly place art in the realm of politics and activism.

3d printed art