May 20, 2022 – July 8, 2022
Stride Gallery is excited to present an exhibition by Nura Ali, Black Wholes. She will present a new body of work, which started with the question: What does it mean to have forces acting upon you, to be in the gravitational pull of something you are not even aware of? Ali thinks about the invisible systems that heighten our attention and direct our focus. She also considers how she can use language to pull those systems out of the shadows and expose them to the full light of day. Considering herself a compulsive ‘overeater’ of language, easily obsessed with the trilateral roots of words, Ali’s practice is deeply embedded in language. Her art works chart her persistent attempts to make sense of the leakiness of language and the sticky feelings that she can’t stop thinking about even when (especially when) she can’t give language to them.
Nura Ali is a visual artist, community organiser and social activist, living and working in Calgary, Alberta. Her multidisciplinary practise is deeply rooted in investigating the linguistic scaffolding upholding the construction of race and the veiled verbal and textual strategies that perpetuate white supremacy. Ali is deeply invested in strategies to dismantle oppressive structures and for this reason became one of the founding members of the Vancouver Artists Labour Union; a unionised workers cooperative with a mission to transform labour practices within the arts sector and create fair, equitable and sustainable working conditions for artists and cultural workers.
Documentation by Katy Whitt.
