Alia Syed
Alia Syed (born 1964) is a British experimental filmmaker and artist.
Born in Swansea, Wales, Syed earned her Bachelors in Fine Arts from University of East London in 1987 and a Postgraduate degree in Mixed Media from Slade School of Fine Art in 1992.[1] Over the past two decades, she has taught and lectured at Central St. Martins and Chelsea College of Art and Design, and she is now an associate lecturer at Southampton Solent University.[2] Syed’s work has been screened and exhibited in museums, galleries, and festivals worldwide, including at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) in Los Angeles, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid, Institute of International Visual Arts (inIVA) in London, and the Talwar Gallery, which has represented her for over a decade, in New York and in New Delhi.[3] Syed lives and works in London, UK.
Syed’s work focuses on issues of identity, representation, and language, often incorporating sound and text, in addition to images and characters, to explore and question structures of personal and collective narrative.[4][5][6][7] Commenting on her own work, Syed has said, “I am interested in language; we construct ourselves through language; it creates the space where we define ourselves. Film can be a mirror—it can throw things back at us in a way that makes us question the ideas we have about ourselves and through this each other…I [am] interested in what happens when you hold more than one ‘culture’ within you at any given time.”[8]
Selected Exhibitions
Solo Exhibitions
- 2013:- Talwar Gallery, Panopticon Letters: Missive I, New York, NY, US
- 2012-2013:- Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Eating Grass, Los Angeles, CA, US
- 2010:- Talwar Gallery, Wallpaper, New York, NY, US
- 2009:-
- Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Imagine your own history, Madrid, Spain
- Talwar Gallery, Elision, New Delhi, India
- 2008:- Talwar Gallery, New York, NY, US
- 2006:- Millais Gallery, Southampton, UK
- 2004:- Talwar Gallery, Eating Grass, New York, NY, US
- 2003:-
- Institute of International Visual Arts (inIVA), London, UK;
- Talwar Gallery, New York, NY, US
- 2002:-
- Jigar, a retrospective of Alia Syed's film works at The New Art Gallery Walsall, UK;
- The Space Gallery at InIVA, London, UK;
- Turnpike Gallery, Manchester, UK; Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, Scotland
Selected Other Exhibitions
- 2011:- Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Ffilm 3, Swansea, UK
- 2010:- Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), On Line, curated by Connie Butler and Catherine de Zegher, New York, NY, US
- 2009:- Talwar Gallery, Excerpts from Diary Pages, New York, NY, US
- 2006:- XV Sydney Biennale, Zones of Contact, Sydney, Australia
- 2005:-
- Hayward Gallery, BALTIC, The British Art Show, touring show, UK; Arts Depot, 1001100111001, London, UK
- Talwar Gallery, (desi)re, New York, NY, US
- 2003:- Tate Britain, A Century of Artists' Film in Britain, London, UK
Film Works
- 2010-2013 Panopticon Letters: Missive I
- 2008-2011 Priya
- 2006-2011 A Story Told
- 2010 Wallpaper
- 2005 LA Diary
- 2003 Eating Grass
- 2001 Spoken Diary
- 1994 The Watershed
- 1991 Fatima's Letter
- 1989 Three Paces, Swan
- 1987 Unfolding
- 1985 Durga
References
- ↑ Talwar Gallery, (desi)re, New York: Talwar Gallery, 2005.
- ↑ Southampton Solent University.
- ↑ Talwar Gallery, "Alia Syed: Biography", http://talwargallery.com/alia-bio/.
- ↑ Art India, Flight of Fancy, July 2009.
- ↑ Talwar Gallery, (desi)re, New York: Talwar Gallery, 2005.
- ↑ Art Asia Pacific, Alia Syed: Materials for a Film, September/October 2008.
- ↑ David Thorp, A Story Told, Millais Gallery, April 2006.
- ↑ Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Eating Grass: Q & A with Filmmaker Alia Syed, September 2012.
External links
- New York Observer, Alia Syed: Panopticon Letters, April 1, 2013.
- LACMA, Eating Grass: Q & A with Filmmaker Alia Syed, September 2012.
- The New York Times, Alia Syed, February 6, 2004.