Laylah Ali 17January – 24 February 2007 at inIVA the kiss and other warriors is the first UK exhibition of internationally-acclaimed artist Laylah Ali. Combining paintings and new drawings, Ali continues her exploration of the social dynamics of violence and cultural difference. Playful while at the same time deeply disturbing, the cartoon-like imagery with its ambiguous narratives offers uncanny resonances to present-day conflicts. Accompanying the exhibit is a newly-commissioned artist’s book titled Notes with Little Illustration.

Born in 1968 in Buffalo, New York, Laylah Ali studied at the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program, the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and received a MFA in painting from Washington University in St Louis, Missouri in 1994. Her exhibitions include solo exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Contemporary Art Museum, St Louis; Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art; and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, among others. Her work was also exhibited at the Venice Biennale (2003) and the Whitney Biennial (2004). Ali lives and works in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Laylah Ali is supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.

The Institute of International Visual Arts For further information, please contact: (inIVA) is a contemporary arts organisation inIVA (Institute of International Visual Arts) promoting artists from diverse cultural 6-8 Standard Place, Rivington Street backgrounds through exhibitions, London EC2A 3BE, United Kingdom publications, research and educational Tel.: 020 7729 9616 ventures. inIVA has a special interest in Fax: 020 7729 9509 new technologies, international Email: [email protected] collaborations and commissioning www.iniva.org site-specific artworks. Registered Charity no. 1031721

Wednesday-Saturday 12–6pm Admission free me & more, Kunstmuseum 2001 Against the Wall: Lucerne, Lucerne, Painting against the Grid, Switzerland. Surface, Frame, ICA, Fault Lines: Contemporary University of Pennsylvania, African Art and Shifting Philadelphia, USA. Landscapes, curated by A Work in Progress: Gilane Tawadros, with the Selections from the New Forum for African Arts, Museum Collection, New Venice Biennale, Museum, New York, USA. Venice, Italy. Premio Regione Splat, Boom, Pow, Piemonte, Palazzo Re Contemporary Art Museum, Rebaudengo, Italy. Houston, USA (travelling to Freestyle, Studio Museum the Institute of in Harlem, New York, USA. Contemporary Art, Boston, FRESH: The Altoids Kitchen, New York, USA. and the Wexner Center for Curiously Strong Collection Laylah Ali Other the Arts, Columbus). 1998–2000, The New 2004 Walker Without Walls, 2002 Comic Release: Museum, New York, USA. outdoor billboard project, Negotiating Identity for a Solo Exhibitions with Walker Art Center, New Generation, Carnegie BIBLIOGRAPHY 2007 Institute of Minneapolis, USA. Mellon University, Exhibition Catalogues International Visual Arts, Pittsburgh, USA (travelling 2005 The Body, The Ruin, London, UK. Selected Group to the Center for Potter Museum, University 2005 303 Gallery, Exhibitions Contemporary Art, of Melbourne, Australia. New York, USA. 2006 Alien Nation, ICA, New Orleans; University of 2004 2004 Whitney Biennial Typology, Gertrude London; Manchester North Texas Gallery, Denton; Catalogue, Whitney Contemporary Art Space, Art Gallery; Sainsbury and Western Washington Museum of American Art, Melbourne, Australia. Centre for Visual Arts, University, Bellingham). New York, USA. 2004 Contemporary Art Norwich, UK. Fantasyland, D’Amelio material witness, curated by Museum, St Louis, USA. Black Alphabet, Zacheta Terras, New York, USA. Margo Crutchfield, Museum 2003 Albright-Knox Art Narodowa Gallery, Painting in Boston, of Contemporary Art Gallery, Buffalo, USA. Warsaw, Poland. DeCordova Museum Cleveland, Cleveland, 2002 Project 75, American Matrix, Harn and Sculpture Park, Ohio, USA. Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Art, University Lincoln, USA. 2003 Peter Fischer and New York, USA. of Florida, USA. First Person Singular, Susanne Neubauer, Atlanta College of Art The Body, The Ruin, Ian Seattle Art Museum, me & more, Kunstmuseum 2001 Arnold J. Kemp, as part of Project series, Gallery, Atlanta, USA. Potter Museum of Art, Seattle, USA. Luzern, Lucerne, Switzerland. ‘Laylah Ali: Paintings from 36 pages, full colour. Indianapolis Museum of Melbourne, Australia. Crosscurrents at Century’s the Greenheads Series’ in Art, Indianapolis, USA. 2005 Vivisección: Dibujo End: Selections from the Try This On!, Yerba Buena Other Publications 2001 Institute of Contemporáneo, Museo de Neuberger Berman Art Center for the Arts, 2005 art: 21: Art in the 21st Contemporary Art, Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico. Collection, Neuberger San Francisco, USA. Century: Season 3, Harry Boston, USA. Cut, Susan Vielmetter Los Berman, New York, USA. Jessica Morgan, Rebecca N. Abrams, Inc. Yerba Buena Center for the Angeles Projects, USA. Fault Lines: Contemporary Walker and Suzanne 2002 Vitamin P, Phaidon Arts, San Francisco, USA. 2004 Whitney Biennial of African Art and Shifting Wise, Laylah Ali, Institute Press, London,UK, pp 28–29. 2000 303 Gallery, New American Art, Whitney Landscapes, curated by of Contemporary Art, York, USA. Museum of American Art, Gilane Tawadros, with the Boston, USA. Far left: Laylah Ali, Untitled, 2005, gouache and acrylic on paper. Massachusetts Museum New York, USA. Forum for African Arts, Left: Laylah Ali, Untitled, 2006, of Contemporary Art, 2003 The 10 Venice Biennale, Venice, Artist’s Books ink and pencil on paper. North Adams, USA. Commandments, KW Italy, with text by Lisa 2004 Types, Contemporary Above: Laylah Ali, Untitled, 2006, ink and pencil on paper. Institute for Contemporary Fischman, pp 97–103. Art Museum, St Louis, Front cover and reverse: Laylah Ali, Collaboration Art, Berlin, Germany. 2002 Comic Release: 36 pages, colour/black Untitled, 2006, ink and pencil on paper. 2005 Figures on a Field, Material Witness, Museum Negotiating Identity for a and white. All images courtesy collaboration (performance) of Contemporary Art, New Generation, Distributed 2002 Untitled, Museum 303 gallery, New York. with Dean Moss, The Cleveland, USA. Art Publishers, Inc., USA. of Modern Art, New York need to articulate who they are. Their must be aware of the possible readings of Laylah Ali interaction is with each other and with us. one’s external self and the multiple ways that external self could be interpreted in various in conversation with Cylena Simonds, CS: Your work has a very narrative feel, almost situations. I think one of the key issues here is like a journal at times. Are there specific stories the multiple ways that one can be viewed – it Curator, Exhibition Projects, inIVA. behind the characters? can be quite layered and complicated, and can even evolve over a few minutes. LA: Though I might have an idea of a mood, a So, I do agree that my drawings are demeanour or a look for a character, when I put infused with subconscious offerings, though pen to paper, I allow the ink drawings to be they are also guided by conscious pre- spontaneous. So, they become what they occupations. I often describe my work as become despite my original intentions. I’d say psycho-political, meaning it is where the loose they are about 40 per cent intention and 60 per ends of my psyche meet the world. cent unknown. The narrative elements start to settle in and be activated later, after the CS: Your earlier work featured groups of drawings are done and can play off of each characters often interacting in violent ways. other. The paintings and black and white drawings in The paintings are much more planned. inIVA’s exhibition are more like portraits, close- They are devised and laid out. They are ups of individual characters focusing on Cylena Simonds: Can you tell me more depictions of spiritual revelations and planned in groups, so their relationships with expressions and moods. Can you talk about about the title you chose for the exhibition, intellectual enlightenment. Are there references each other are more strategic. your different strategies for these works? the kiss and other warriors, and the to these kinds of knowledge in the work? relationship suggested between affection CS: The way you describe your work reminds LA: My earlier work was concerned with and violence? LA: One of the rare good things about being me of the automatic drawings of the moments around physical violence, whether American – and I guess I mean in a family that Surrealists. They believed that abandoning Laylah Ali: I am not sure what is transpiring has been in the US for many generations so conscious control would allow for repressed between some of these figures is as gentle as you’ve lost any sort of real link with your aspects of the psyche to be revealed. Do you affection. They are physically interacting – they customs of origin – is that, for the most part, we see your spontaneous drawings relating to the are attracting – and you might even call what don’t have the custom of kissing people you practice of automatic drawing? For me, your they are doing kissing, though I have a friend hardly know on the cheek, though it does seem work differs from the work of the Surrealists in who insists on calling their actions ‘tonguing’, to persist in gallery circles. They do it in that what is revealed has more to do with the which is perhaps more physically accurate. Australia, where I am right now, and I find perceptions or preconceptions of the viewer. These are awkward, rather than completely myself tensing up when it happens – like, here it fluid and mutually pleasurable, exchanges. comes, that horrible cheek kiss. Sometimes LA: I think that a brown person who has lived I don’t see violence as being opposite to twice in a row. Meaningless contact: it means amongst a white majority – and this could attraction – and perhaps not always that distant nothing, solidifies nothing, introduces no new apply to any visible minority, though I think it is from affection. I grew up in a house where they narratives. I find a handshake more telling. intensified in those groups that have a long were bound. Your love for someone could be But back to your question – I just had to historical track record of being despised – has marbled with strands of hatred and fear. get that off my chest – I think the thing that the often been looked at, singled out, noticed, figures have in common in the paired pictures because of the visual spectacle that is inherent CS: It’s true that a kiss can be more ambiguous is that each figure is experiencing a moment in being visually different. In this position, and than affection implies. Today, we often kiss that is not shared in the same way by the other. this applies to me, I believe that one’s mind and someone, on one or both cheeks, as a So a spiritual moment for one is a duty for intimate psychology can become very attuned greeting, even if we have met the person only the other. Arousing ecstasy for one is puzzling to the feeling and reality of being surveyed. So once before. Tonguing has a more sexual for another. All of this is complicated by the it is not unusual to think of the perceptions or connotation, and implies an intense physical imposition of an implied external viewing preconceptions of the viewer – and to have interaction. The expressions of the characters during this intimate moment. So, no matter that deeply embedded almost as a survival could be read as ecstasy but also as pain, what the internal emotions may be, the figures mechanism – because in order to be safe or potentially. The expressions also remind me of are obscured and changed by our impulse and successful, or to procure what one needs, one political violence or inter-personal violence, or don’t necessarily think of the choices I make as same as real bodies in front of you – even somewhere in between. I still am drawn to humorous. It is not really deliberately humorous though they weren’t really hurting each other, those moments but via different routes, so but more an absurdist take on things. the effect was still very different, very full on. exploring these individual characters – who So when one of the dancers is pelted on the exist more as types than fully realised CS: I’ve noticed that the paintings in this head by the others with dodge balls, and her individuals – is another route. I have become exhibition have more detail than in your early head bobs from the hits, it is intensely interested in exploring ‘types’ and blurring the paintings. The characters all have elaborate uncomfortable. I think I prefer the distance distinctions between the obvious and absurd head-dresses, for example. Can you tell me of working in 2-D because it allows for some ways that people are visually categorised. Yet more about your inspiration for these details? emotional distance. types are also useful in that they contain within Also, I was interested in how a them instant narrative. So we all understand LA: The head-dresses have been inspired by performance can change each time – there are the immediately revealed, usually derogatory, an amalgamation of hair, feather head-dresses so many components that go into what might narrative contained within a stereotype. And and the headgear of the Catholic hierarchy. I be considered a successful version of it. With we might be sympathetic to other kinds of think the earlier work concentrated on the my painting and drawing, I decide whether typology: she is a working class mother; he is a details of the physical interactions. Those something should go out in the world after Democrat. We use this kind of shorthand all the figures tended to be less individualistic and it is done. But the unpredictability of live time. In my new drawings, I aim to fuse more a part of teams – and their dress reflected performance was very new to me – and it was recognisable types with question marks, fuse that by being more like uniforms or athletic hard to give up that autocratic control. But I known narratives with things that are not as wear. The newer work is relatively still, and thus enjoyed working with other people – I think easily articulated. The inbuilt narratives within the physical drama has been replaced, in some ultimately, as a lifelong endeavour, it might be what is recognisable give the viewer a place to ways, by the narratives implied by what they a healthier way to be creative. start. So, we might start with what looks like a might be wearing or their manner of physical kiss, but what kind of kiss is this? Who are bearing. The details of the clothing hint at CS: Can you tell us about your future plans? these people? affiliations, status, aspirations. I think there is a sort of replacement drama in the patterns LA: Right now, I am working on a show of CS: I think that this play between recognisable created – and also distraction. All that layering CS: You have also produced a book, Notes drawings that is to open in Philadelphia shortly types and unfamiliar signs is what I find as if to disguise some essential self that isn’t with Little Illustration, in conjunction with the after the inIVA show, and which will travel to a intriguing but also unsettling. On the one hand, really there. exhibition. Can you say a little about your couple of locations in the US. In the meantime, the works are disturbing or have a sense of interest in presenting your work in this format? fledgling painting ideas are knocking around foreboding. And yet, at the same time, they can CS: Also, it seems the activity is occurring my head, readying hemselves for the next be playful in the formal qualities of colour and just outside of the frame, and in that sense the LA: I guess this relates a bit to my answer to series of paintings, which always takes me a line and humorous expressions of the works are reminiscent of film or animation. your film question – because I do have a desire fair amount of time to complete. characters. This movement between Are you interested in working in these media? to reach outside of traditional viewing spaces. I familiarity and strangeness is very uncanny; in like the way that a book can travel unexpected fact it is one of the definitions of the term. LA: Right now, for my own work, I prefer the paths, and be examined at your leisure, and at And the uncanny experience has been noted stillness of paintings and drawings. I like the the pace you want because you can always in post-colonial theory as particularly useful way that stillness can invite a viewer in and look at it again easily. It is both a deliberate and for understanding the way racial difference that a reflective space exists that is activated – an incidental object simultaneously. performs in the psyche of Western society. or not – by the viewer. I am interested in Is the uncanny an important theme for your paintings and drawings having tangible CS: Last year, you collaborated with Dean practice? ‘bodies’ that exist in the world. Moss on Figures on a Field, a live performance The magical distance and ghostliness that took place at The Kitchen in New York. LA: I’ve never termed it uncanny but, as you of film and animation – and their insistence How did it feel to work with your imagery in real describe it, it makes sense when I think about on being watched – are of interest to me, but I time, in front of a live audience? the way things shift in my work. I’m not sure haven’t quite reached the point where I feel the how humour functions in theories of the need to work in moving pictures. It often seems LA: In the performance, the violence was Far left: Laylah Ali, Untitled, 2006, ink and pencil on paper. uncanny. The role of humour in my work has like an inevitable progression these days, and I Above Left: Laylah Ali, Untitled, 2006, ink and pencil amplified with real bodies. That was perhaps on paper. Above: Laylah Ali, Untitled, 2005, gouache and always been of interest to me, but usually after think one of the attractions of film is that it the most noticeable and jarring difference. acrylic on paper. All images courtesy 303 gallery, New York. the fact rather than while making it – because I seems more open and democratic in its reach. Trafficking in 2-D violence is obviously not the