Event overview
The Department of Art Public Talks Programme Autumn 2018 welcomes artist, writer and filmmaker Sophia Al-Maria.
Sophia Al Maria is an artist, writer and filmmaker. In recent years, she has been carrying out research around the concept of Gulf Futurism. Her primary interests are around the isolation of individuals via technology and reactionary Islam, the corrosive elements of consumerism and industry, and the erasure of history and the blinding approach of a future no one is ready for. She explores these ideas with certain guidebooks and ideas including, but not limited to, Zizek’s The Desert of the Unreal, As-Sufi’s Islamic Book of the Dead, as well as imagery from Islamic eschatology, post humanism and the global mythos of Science Fiction.
Sophia studied comparative literature at the American University in Cairo, and aural and visual cultures at Goldsmiths. Her work has been exhibited in various institutional shows around the world, most recently: Black Friday, Mercer Union, Images Festival, Toronto, Canada (2018); No to the Invasion: Breakdowns and Side Effect, CCS Bard Gallery, NY, USA (2017); Mondialite, Villa Empain Boghossian Foundation, Brussels, Belgium (2017); The New Normal, Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art, Beijing China (2017); Seeds of Time, Shanghai Project, Shanghai, China (2017); Transmissions from the Etherspace, La Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain (2017); Paratoxic Paradoxes, Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece (2017); Eternal Youth, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA (2017); Black Friday, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, USA (2016); Imitation of Life at HOME, Manchester (2016); In Search of Lost Time, The Brunei Gallery, London (2016); 2015 Triennial: Surround Audience, New Museum, New York, NY, USA (2015); Common Grounds, Villa Stuck, Munich, Germany (2015); Extinctions Marathon: Visions of the Future, Serpentine Gallery, London, UK (2014); Virgin with a memory, Cornerhouse, Manchester, UK (2014).
Sophia is the author of ‘Virgin With A Memory’ and ‘The Girl Who Fell To Earth’ and has also guest edited an issue of the experimental art-writing journal The Happy Hypocrite, entitled ‘Fresh Hell’. Her writing has also appeared in Harper's Magazine, Five Dials, Triple Canopy, and Bidoun. She is the recipient of the inaugural Dunya Contemporary Art Prize 2018, awarded by the Musuem of Contemporary Art, Chicago.
http://www.thethirdline.com/artists/sophia-al-maria/selected-work/
Image: Sophia Al-Maria ‘Your Sister’ video still, 2014
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 17 Oct 2018 | 5:30pm - 7:00pm |
Accessibility
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