[Feb 18, 2023] Mythological Migrations: Imagining Queer Muslim Utopias, Abdullah Qureshi

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This conversation will focus on Abdullah Qureshi’s well-established artistic practice in relation to his doctoral research, Mythological Migrations: Imagining Queer Muslim Utopias. This project examines formations of queer identity and resistance in Muslim migratory contexts. Responding to an urgent need to recognize queer Muslim voices and address the rampant Islamophobia in Europe, the research contextualizes narratives of Muslim LGBTIQ+ immigrants in Islamic history, mythologies, and art. Through artistic and curatorial interventions, the project challenges and re-imagines spaces of exclusion and fetishization. As we discuss this current inquiry, we also consider Qureshi’s curating, cultural programming, pedagogy, and writings which articulate inquiries in feminist, LGBTIQ2S+, decolonial, anti-racist, and migratory discourses and engage collective modes of creative thinking, organization, and production.

Presenter Details:

Abdullah Qureshi is a multidisciplinary artist, curator, and educator. Rooted in traditions of abstraction, he incorporates gestural, poetic, and hybrid methodologies to address autobiography, trauma, and sexuality through painting, filmmaking, and immersive events.

Qureshi’s work has been exhibited internationally and he has conducted lectures, paper readings, and artist talks around the world. In 2017, Qureshi received the Art and International Cooperation fellowship at Zurich University of the Arts, and in 2018, a research fellowship at the Center for Arts, Design, and Social Research, Boston. In 2019, he joined the Centre for Feminist Research, York University, Toronto as a visiting graduate student. Qureshi is currently a Doctoral Candidate at Aalto University, Espoo, and Lecturer in Fine Art: Contemporary Practices at Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne.

Hosted by:

Dr. Michael Chagnon, Curator at the Aga Khan Museum. Dr. Chagnon has previously held curatorial posts at the Brooklyn Museum, LACMA, and Japan Society, and served in curatorial capacities for exhibitions at New-York Historical Society and Asia Society Museum. He received his PhD from New York University in the History of Art in 2015.

Sanniah Jabeen, PhD candidate in Art History at the University of Toronto and Senior Fellow at the IAMCC.

Register HERE