Artist Statement

Working at the intersection of art and science, artist, writer and curator, Nura Ali investigates the world-making capacity inherent in language and the socio-political webs impacting how — and by whom — meaning is made. In her conceptual text-based work, she investigates the ways wildly varying interpretations and sometimes contradictory perceptions can open us up to the multiplicity of understanding intrinsic to words, signs, and signification. Rooted in black study, feminist and emancipatory thought, Ali’s work attempts to resituate where meaning and knowledge are produced. By destabilising and abstracting a singular meaning, Ali creates a space for interpretation, for slipping in between the lines, for pulling up the inventive potential for several relational and parallel possible meanings to exist alongside each other without one having to claim supremacy over the other.

Artist Bio

Nura Ali is a visual artist, writer and curator, living and working in Calgary, Alberta. She received a BFA in Visual Art from Emily Carr University of Art and Design, a BA in English Literature, Art History and Italian from the University of Leicester and a BA in History from Goldsmiths College, University of London. Her wide-ranging practise investigates the linguistic scaffolding underpinning the ways we create meaning. Nura has shown her work across Canada and internationally, received numerous awards and taken part in various national and international residencies. Alongside her visual art practise, her commitment to dismantling oppressive structures led to her becoming one of the founding members of the Vancouver Artists Labour Union; a unionised workers cooperative whose mission it is to transform labour practices in the arts sector and create fair, equitable and sustainable working conditions for artists and cultural workers.

Instagram: @nura.ali1986