The Queer Withdrawings — Portfolio - Morehshin Allahyari

The Queer Withdrawings (2022-2023)

The Queer Withdrawings is a site-specific installation of drawings and two sculptural works inspired by an annotated and illustrated archive of manuscripts and other sources of Islamic mythologies and the occult sciences, which can be viewed in full at archive.shewhoseestheunknown.com.

The archive is the product of the long-term research, collection, and assembly of books, manuscripts, and images in relation to She Who Sees The Unknown. The image gallery is extracted from some of the most valuable books and manuscripts, with focus on female and queer figures, occult science, talismans, and further related material.I envisioned a queer gathering of Jinn as they occupy a neither/nor terrain that eludes gender definitions. جن Jinn (or djinn) are creatures made of smokeless fire; appearing in the Qur’an and presented extensively in Islamic theology, literature, and folklore. They occupy multiple and often contradictory roles, serving as companions or adversaries, protectors or threats, and agents of inspiration or possession. Their ontological status is inherently liminal; neither fully material nor wholly immaterial, morally ambivalent rather than fixed as either good or evil. Jinn are seen in ruins, deserts, corners of houses, and public baths. At times, Jinn are said to appear in human form, discernible only by the telltale sign of their hooved feet when one looks down. I have vivid memories of my grandmother recounting the places where she had encountered a Jinn, most often in the public bathhouse of her village in Kurdistan.

In the wall drawing installation, I imagined them in solidarity as the figures pass a ball between them, a catalyst for a queer kinship enacted through play and continuity. Its trajectory traces a form of being in movement; being in movement-building, shown in an ongoing exchange through which new possibilities are set into motion. The mirror-ball reflects each figure back to the others and into the world: multiplied and seen; not in hiding but on display. The mirror ball is also a portal that opens passages in time and space, enabling wonder, magic and a parallel world of dreams beyond our material world. The ball’s circulation renders queerness not just an identity but a collective practice and a way of being in a world created by us and for us.

These two mirrored sculptural figures, Qareen i and Qareen ii (Arabic/Farsi: قرين, lit. “constant companion”), offer blessings of healing and protection to their observers. Known as a primarily decorative medium in Iran, mirroring (Farsi: آینهکاری ayeneh-kari lit. “mirror-work”, or قرینهسازی Qareeneh Sazi lit. “to reverse”) is used as an aesthetic revetment in shrines. Mirroring schemas and mirrored-looking sketches furnish the walls, working in tandem with the symmetry found in the other works in the show to balance order and power. a site-specific installation of drawings from an annotated and illustrated archive of manuscripts and other sources of Islamic mythologies and the occult sciences, which can be viewed in full at archive.shewhoseestheunknown.com.

The exhibition is accompanied by a text by art historian and educator Nima Esmailpour, which can be read here.

Morehshin Allahyari, Full Installation View, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, 2025.

Morehshin Allahyari, Majlis al-Jinn, Installation View (Qareen II), Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, 2025.

Morehshin Allahyari, Queer Withdrawings Installation.

Morehshin Allahyari, Majlis al-Jinn, Installation View (Qareen II), Management NYC, 2021.

Morehshin Allahyari, Majlis al-Jinn, Installation View (Qareen II, detail 2), Management NYC, 2021.

Morehshin Allahyari, Majlis al-Jinn, Installation View (Qareen I 2), Management NYC, 2021.

Morehshin Allahyari, Installation View (Qareen I, detail 2), Asian Art Museum, San Francisico, 2025.

Morehshin Allahyari, Majlis al-Jinn, Installation View (Qareen I, detail 3), Management NYC, 2021.