Photographer Alia Ali depicts her subjects in vividly patterned traditional ikat textiles to reveal layered global histories of colonialism, migration, imperialism, and war. Her striking studio portraits conceal the identities of subjects entirely covered by these fabrics. The artist’s peripatetic life, which has brought her to more than 67 countries, informs her interest in excavating and tracing the complex provenance of global textile techniques like indigo- and wax-resistant dyeing. Her series “FLUX” (2019–21), which considers the identity politics and colonial histories of wax-print textiles, has been widely exhibited, including in a 2020 solo exhibition at the New Orleans Museum of Art.
| Category: | Mixed Media |
|---|---|
| Length: | 88 Cm |
| Height: | 124 Cm |
| Width: | 2 Cm |
| Material: | Pigment print on photo rag with UV laminate mounted on aluminum Dibond in wooden frame upholstered in wax fabric. |
| Framed: | Yes |
| Edition: | 1/5 + 1AP |
| Country: | Saudi Arabia |
| Shipping from: | Saudi Arabia |
United Arab Emirates
Alia Ali
Alia Ali is a Yemeni-Bosnian-US multi-media artist. A child of migrant linguists, Ali has traveled to sixty-seven countries, lived in and between seven, and grown up among five languages. Her migrations have led her to process the world through interactive experiences and the belief that the damage of translation and interpretation of written language has dis-served particular communities, resulting in the threat of their exclusion, rather than a means of understanding. As an artist who exists on the borders of identifying as West Asian, Eastern European, a United States citizen, queer, culturally Muslim yet spiritually independent, her work explores cultural binaries, challenges culturally sanctioned oppression, and confronts the dualistic barriers of conflicted notions of gender, politics, media, and citizenship. Through her practice, Ali critiques linguistics and inherited political structures and narratives, while simultaneously attempting to counter the polarization and miscommunication that imperils communities across the world, encouraging viewers to confront their own prejudices.
