In her series 'FLUX', multi-media artist Alia Ali draws the viewer's attention to the textile as a document in which politics, economics and histories collide. 'FLUX' is a series of shifting photographic artworks that embody silhouettes that are warped by textile, saturated in colours and a medley of motifs. Each frame is uniquely upholstered with wax print sourced from Cote d'Ivoire. While some of the images distort visibility, others create hyper-visibility almost negating themselves into animated forms of camouflage.
The outburst of saturated colours and hyper-optic motifs in these images, lend themselves to vibrating results obscuring the complex and sometimes iniquitous conditions by which these textiles came into fruition and destabilising the source(s) from where they came from. The multiple dimensionality creates a kaleidoscope of perspectives, horizontally and vertically. Horizontally, in that this material has come into existence across borders over land and water, and vertically in that they draw from and evoke cosmic, mythical and religious inspirations. Furthermore, these particular wax prints are a key to mapping the colonial trade routes. While they certainly can be seen as escapist dreamscapes, they are also objects of oppression and capitalism.
Press release courtesy Galerie—Peter—Sillem.
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