"For us, the idea of having a work that has contradictions is very important—when, in affirming something, it includes itself and attacks itself. How can you put together all of these things that have nothing to do with each other? You use glue! Glue can be an idea, a word. You can use an ideological glue."
SEGMENT: Laylah Ali in "Power"
From "Art in the Twenty-First Century" Season 3 (2005)
About
Working in extremely detailed paintings that take months to create, Laylah Ali combines cartoon and folkloric aesthetics to explore notions of ethnicity and social violence. “I think when people say violence, oftentimes, we think of the violent act,” says Ali. “I’m more interested in what happens before and after.” In her studio, Ali demonstrates the tricky process of working with gouache on paper and speculates that the physiological effects of color and light on the eye may have real social effects. “Could racism be just attributed to bizarre visual phenomenon? There’s a question.” Control, a theme in much of Ali’s work, also informs her own creative process. She admits, “So much of the work is about me trying to control it...and yet it still defies me.”
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