Alia Syed

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

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), Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, 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 City and in New Delhi. 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 minterested in what happens when you hold more than one ‘culture’ within you at any given time.”

Selected exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

; 2019 : Talwar Gallery, Meta Incognita: Missive II, New York, NY, US
; 2018 : LUX, ''Wallpaper'', London, UK
; 2017 : Talwar Gallery, ''On a wing and a prayer,'' New York, NY, US
; 2013 : Talwar Gallery, ''Panopticon Letters: Missive I'', New York, NY, US
; 2012 : 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
; 2005 : Arts Depot, ''1001100111001'', London, UK, ''Eating Grass''
; 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
: (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

; 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
; 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

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

External links

The National
Eating Grass, Los Angeles, CA

"Glasgow artist Alia Syed shortlisted for £10,000 filmmaking prize," July 2015

Art Asia Pacific, "Eating Grass," July 2013

New York Observer, ''Alia Syed: Panopticon Letters''
April 1, 2013.

LACMA, ''Eating Grass: Q & A with Filmmaker Alia Syed''
September 2012.


February 6, 2004.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Syed, Alia
1964 births
Living people
20th-century Welsh women artists
21st-century Welsh women artists
British filmmakers
Artists from Swansea
Welsh people of Indian descent
Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art
Alumni of the University of East London