From a nostalgic past and dystopian present, Yemeni-Bosnian multimedia artist Alia Ali reimagines Yemeni futurity. This talk situated Ali's current art practice by engaging with a series of material objects—threads, stones, jewelry, dress—that bridge archaeological pasts with future imaginaries.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Alia Ali (Arabic: عاليه علي // Sabean: ‎ 𐩲𐩱𐩡𐩺𐩲|𐩲𐩱𐩡) is a Yemeni-Bosnian-US multimedia artist whose work explores cultural binaries, challenges culturally sanctioned oppression, and confronts the dualistic barriers of conflicted notions of gender, politics, media, and citizenship. Working between language, photography, video, textile, and installation, Ali’s work addresses the politicization of the body, histories of colonization, imperialism, sexism, and racism through projects that take pattern and textile as their primary motif. Ali is a graduate of Wellesley College and the California Institute of the Arts. She lives and works in and between New Orleans, Paris, and Jaipur and is the recipient of the prestigious ARTSY Vanguard Emerging Artist Award and is a NIKON Global Ambassador.

This event was organized by the Costumes and Collapse research project at the Neubauer Collegium. Co-sponsored by the Department of Comparative Literature and the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Chicago. Additional support by Octavia Art Gallery in New Orleans.

Photos by Max Herman.