Monira Al Qadiri (b. 1983, Kuwait) is a Kuwaiti visual artist born in Senegal and educated in Japan. Working across sculpture, installation, film, and performance, Al Qadiri draws on science fiction, autobiography, traditional practices, and popular culture to create uncanny and speculative visions of the past and future.

The works in this exhibition look to the Persian Gulf’s metamorphosis from a pearling economy to a petrostate, a profound rupture that reshaped the region’s cultures and landscapes. Al Qadiri’s grandfather experienced this shift firsthand, having worked as a singer on a pearling boat in the 1940s. In Diver (2018), synchronized swimmers in dichroic costumes evoke pearls and oil as they move to a traditional pearl-diving song. Meanwhile, Alien Technology (Tower) (2023) transforms an oil-drilling bit into a luminous, futuristic kinetic form. Its iridescent surface recalls both the sheen of petroleum and the lustre of pearls, while its strange, monumental presence conjures something between an industrial relic and a mythical being. Al Qadiri’s works invite us to consider our own moment of transformation and the new myths taking shape to help us make sense of a rapidly changing world.

Alien Technology is presented as part of the 2026 Aurora Biennial, States of Becoming, a city-wide program of free public art, performances, lectures, and artist-led experiences taking place across Dallas and Fort Worth from November 4–21, 2026. The culminating event on November 21 will be a free, outdoor exhibition displayed across Dallas City Hall, the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library, and the AT&T Discovery District, each notably in various states of becoming.