The Children of Smokeless Fire
Monira Al Qadiri
The Children of Smokeless Fire is a work of mystery and magic inspired by the famous Cottingley Fairies, created by two Bradford girls in 1917, and the Djinns, supernatural beings depicted in Zakariya al-Qazwini’s 13th-century Islamic manuscript, ‘The Wonders of Creation’. It’s made for Bradford 2025 by Monira Al Qadiri, a Kuwaiti artist now based in Berlin.
Explore the artwork through this series of photographs, videos and accompanying audio description.
The Cottingley Fairies were copied from a children’s book, cut out and placed on sticks in the garden and photographed. Intended as a playful prank, their images became a sensation after an article by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle claimed them as evidence of a hidden spiritual realm. Fairies share similarities with Djinns, supernatural beings said to be formed from smokeless fire.
The Djinns were depicted alongside animals and plants by Zakariya Al-Qazwini some 750 years ago in The Wonders of Creation and the Oddities of Existence, and show how medieval scholars combined empirical observations with spiritual dimensions. The Children of Smokeless Fire draws inspiration from this interplay between belief and scepticism – placing Djinn cutouts in natural environments to spark the same sense of wonder as did the Cottingley Fairies 100 years ago.
17 cutouts of Djinns were created for Penistone Hill and include a tortoise, a snake, a camel and a goat along with two fairylike figures with wings.
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Biography
Monira Al Qadiri is a Kuwaiti artist, born in Dakar, educated in Japan and now based in Berlin. Her multifaceted practice spans sculpture, installation, film and performance, and is mainly based on research into the cultural histories of the Gulf region. Her interpretation of the Gulf’s so-called ‘petro-culture’ can be seen in speculative scenarios that take inspiration from science fiction, autobiography, traditional practices and pop culture, resulting in uncanny and subversive works of art.
“The Cottingley fairies were inspired from a sense of wonderment in in nature and I liked the idea that there are beings and fairies that live in trees and forests and hills. I wanted to create kind of my own version that reflected the many cultures that live in Bradford”– Monira Al Qadiri
