Alia Farid's adaptable monument - movable and customized to respond and reflect the interest of a particular community in Boston (Photo provided by Alia Farid)... The other day, Artist Alia Farid gave us a wonderful presentation at Kuwait University. She has a Fine Arts degree from the Escuela de Artes Artes Plasticas, in Puerto Rico, as well as a MSc from in Visual Studies programme at MIT. Along with being a practising artist, she is also currently working as a Curator and the Cultural Director of the Al Sabah Art & Design Collection.
A short synopsis, in her own words, of her interests and approach to practising her art(s).
“I began my experimental practice as an artist/curator somewhere in between the lines of art, architecture, and the public realm. Today I’m still interested in exploring these areas, but with a much more focused point in telling how informal networks are forced to compensate for lack of formal structure, as one of the things I value most is the subversive quality of work that goes unnoticed.” She identifies her role as a curator with that of a mitigation planner by acknowledging, “There’s a duality in dealing with art – a disconnect between who we are and what we see that can either mean death to the work or a strike in change. My job is to mitigate, or make up, for this disconnect”. The risk factor involved in re-presenting art is a challenge Alia readily enjoys, however instead of handling the work with gloves, she’s more likely to want to figure out ways in which the audience can engage with the art directly.
A short synopsis, in her own words, of her interests and approach to practising her art(s).
“I began my experimental practice as an artist/curator somewhere in between the lines of art, architecture, and the public realm. Today I’m still interested in exploring these areas, but with a much more focused point in telling how informal networks are forced to compensate for lack of formal structure, as one of the things I value most is the subversive quality of work that goes unnoticed.” She identifies her role as a curator with that of a mitigation planner by acknowledging, “There’s a duality in dealing with art – a disconnect between who we are and what we see that can either mean death to the work or a strike in change. My job is to mitigate, or make up, for this disconnect”. The risk factor involved in re-presenting art is a challenge Alia readily enjoys, however instead of handling the work with gloves, she’s more likely to want to figure out ways in which the audience can engage with the art directly.
It is this aforementioned engagement that is sorely needed in Kuwait, where the value of ideas - engaging, exploratory, novel and occasionally even polemic ideas - are still largely undervalued.
An additional view of her mobile and adaptable monument/ sales & service stand (Photo provided by Alia Farid)...
1 comment:
WoW! i find this work very interesting , I would like to see more of this kind of work.
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