Alia Syed

Alia Syed (born 1964) is an experimental filmmaker and artist of Welsh-Indian descent.[1]

Biography

Born in Swansea, Wales, Syed earned her Bachelors in Fine Arts from the University of East London in 1987 and a Postgraduate degree in Mixed Media from the Slade School of Fine Art in 1992. She has taught and lectured at Central St. Martins and the Chelsea College of Art and Design, and she is now an associate lecturer at Southampton Solent University. Syed’s work has been screened and exhibited in museums, galleries, and festivals worldwide, including at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA),[2] Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City,[3] Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid,[4] Institute of International Visual Arts (inIVA) in London,[5] and the Talwar Gallery, which has represented her for over a decade, in New York City and in New Delhi.[6] 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. 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.”[7]

Selected exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

2019
Talwar Gallery, Meta Incognita: Missive II, New York, NY, US[8]
2018
LUX, Wallpaper, London, UK[9][10]
2017
Talwar Gallery, On a wing and a prayer, New York, NY, US[11]
2013
Talwar Gallery, Panopticon Letters: Missive I, New York, NY, US[12]
2012
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Eating Grass, Los Angeles, CA, US[13]
2010
Talwar Gallery, Wallpaper, New York, NY, US[14]
2009
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Imagine your own history, Madrid, Spain[15]
Talwar Gallery, Elision, New Delhi, India[16]
2008
Talwar Gallery, New York, NY, US[17]
2006
Millais Gallery, Southampton, UK
2005
Arts Depot, 1001100111001, London, UK, Eating Grass
2004
Talwar Gallery, Eating Grass, New York, NY, US[18]
2003
Institute of International Visual Arts (InIVA), London, UK
Talwar Gallery, New York, NY, US[19]
2002
Jigar, a retrospective of Alia Syed's film works[20]
(February --March) The New Art Gallery Walsall, UK
(February --March) The Space Gallery at InIVA, London, UK
(June --August) Turnpike Gallery, Manchester, UK
(June --September) Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, Scotland

Selected other exhibitions

2021
Talwar Gallery, as the wind blows, New York, NY, US[21]
2019
Yale Center of British Art, Migrating Worlds: The Art of the Moving Image in Britain, New Haven, US[22]
2018
Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Delirium Equilibrium, New Delhi, India
Lahore Biennale 01, Lahore, Pakistan
2016
Van Every/Smith Museum Galleries, Contents Under Pressure, Davidson, North Carolina, US
2015
Hangar, GHOSTS, Lisbon, Portugal
2014
Pumphouse Gallery, You cannot step twice into the same river, London, UK
Solyanka State Gallery, PARAJANOV, Moscow, Russia
2013
5th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia
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[23]
2009
Talwar Gallery, Excerpts from Diary Pages, New York, NY, US[24]
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[25]
2003
Tate Britain, A Century of Artists' Film in Britain, London, UK[26]

Film works

2019: Meta Incognita: Missive II

2016: On a wing and a prayer (text by David Herd)

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

Selected honors, lectures and screenings

2010- Tate Britain, Conversation Pieces, London, UK

2005- Los Angeles County Museum of Arts (LACMA), Eating Grass, Los Angeles, CA

2000- Tate Modern, Watershed in Performing Bodies, London, UK

1997- Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), Fatima's Letter, London, UK

1996- Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), Watershed in Pandemonium, London, UK

1994- Ikon Gallery, Fatima's Letter in Beyond Destination, Birmingham, UK

1991- Tate Gallery, Fatima's Letter in 25 years of British Avant Garde, London, UK

References

  1. ^ "Alia Syed Artist | Biography, Past and Future Exhibitions | on artist-info". www.artist-info.com. Retrieved 4 December 2022.
  2. ^ "The Poetry of Alia Syed's Eating Grass". LACMA. 2 July 2013. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  3. ^ "Alia Syed". Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  4. ^ "Alia Syed: Imagina tu propia historia". Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  5. ^ "Alia Syed". Institute of International Visual Arts. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  6. ^ "Alia Syed: Biography", http://talwargallery.com/alia-bio/.
  7. ^ Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Eating Grass: Q & A with Filmmaker Alia Syed, September 2012.
  8. ^ "Alia Syed – Meta Incognita Press Release « TALWAR GALLERY". Retrieved 12 December 2019.
  9. ^ "Alia Syed". LUX. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
  10. ^ "Wallpaper". LUX. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
  11. ^ "allanalia-pr « TALWAR GALLERY". Retrieved 12 December 2019.
  12. ^ "Alia-Panopticon-PR « TALWAR GALLERY". Retrieved 12 December 2019.
  13. ^ "Eating Grass Alia Syed". 11 December 2019. Archived from the original on 14 May 2013.
  14. ^ "Alia Wallpaper-Press Release « TALWAR GALLERY". Retrieved 12 December 2019.
  15. ^ "Alia Syed | Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía". www.museoreinasofia.es. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
  16. ^ "Alia Elision-Press Release « TALWAR GALLERY". Retrieved 12 December 2019.
  17. ^ "Alia New Films-Press Release « TALWAR GALLERY". Retrieved 12 December 2019.
  18. ^ "Alia Eating Grass-Press Release « TALWAR GALLERY". Retrieved 12 December 2019.
  19. ^ "Alia Filmworks2-Press Release « TALWAR GALLERY". Retrieved 12 December 2019.
  20. ^ "Iniva – Institute of International Visual Arts". 19 December 2013. Archived from the original on 19 December 2013. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
  21. ^ "as the wind blows, « TALWAR GALLERY".
  22. ^ "Migrating Worlds: The Art of the Moving Image in Britain, Yale Center for British Art". Retrieved 24 June 2023.
  23. ^ "On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
  24. ^ "Excerpts from Diary Pages-Press Release « TALWAR GALLERY". Retrieved 12 December 2019.
  25. ^ "Desi(re)-Press Release « TALWAR GALLERY". Retrieved 12 December 2019.
  26. ^ Tate. "A Century of Artists' Film in Britain – Exhibition at Tate Britain". Tate. Retrieved 12 December 2019.