Continue playing
(Time remaining: )
Play from beginning
Continue playing "{{ controller.videos[controller.getVideo(controller.currentVideo)].segmentParentTitle}}"
{{controller.videos[controller.getVideo(controller.currentVideo)].title}} has ended.
Laylah Ali in "Power"
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.”
More information and creditsCredits
Created by: Susan Sollins & Susan Dowling. Executive Producer & Curator: Susan Sollins. Series Producer: Eve-Laure Moros Ortega. Associate Producer: Migs Wright. Assistant Curator: Wesley Miller. Production Manager: Alice Bertoni. Production Coordinator: Kelly Shindler. Producer: Catherine Tatge. Editor: Steven Wechsler. Host: David Alan Grier. Director of Photography: Takahisa Araki, Richard Chisolm, Mark Falstad, Gary Henoch, Samuel Henriques, Mead Hunt, Tom Hurwitz, Joel Shapiro, David Smith, Ken Willinger, & Sérgio Zeigler. Sound: Tom Bergin, Steve Bores, Dwayne Dell, Bob Freeman, Roger Phenix, Merce Williams, & Sérgio Zeigler. Assistant Camera: Chris DeGuy, Craig Feldman, Brian Hwang, Steve Nealey, & Matt Thurber. Production Assistant: Matt Cavanaugh & Justin Leitstein. Assistant Avid Editor: Robert Achs, Jamie Courville, Sean Frechette, Mike Heffron, David Kreger, Cara Leroy O’Connell, Joaquin Perez, Aaron Sheddrick, & Lynn True. Voice-Over Artist (Cai Guo-Qiang segment): Clem Cheung. Translator (Cai Guo-Qiang segment): Ai Guo, Louisa Lam, & Mingxia Li. Still Photography: Alice Bertoni.
Creative Consultant: Ed Sherin. Art Design & Animation: Open, New York. On-Line Editor: Don Wyllie & Frame:Runner NYC. Composer: Peter Foley. Voice-Over Artist: Jace Alexander. Sound Editing: Margaret Crimmins, Greg Smith, & Dog Bark Sound. Sound Mix: Tony Volante & Sound Lounge. Animation Stand: Frank Ferrigno & Frame:Runner NYC. Introductory Host Segments Created by: INTERspectacular. Commissioned Video Art by: Teresa Hubbard / Alexander Birchler.
Artworks Courtesy of: Laylah Ali; Ida Applebroog; Cai Guo-Qiang; Krzysztof Wodiczko; 303 Gallery, New York; Galerie Lelong, New York; Miller Block Gallery, Boston; & Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York. Archival Footage Courtesy of; Artist Network Pictures/Takahisa Araki; Zlatko Cosic/EYE PRODUCTION; Fox News/KTVI; & Ufer! Art Documentary.
Special Thanks: Mariana Valdrighi Amaral; Katie Block; The Art21 Board of Trustees; Center for Advanced Visual Studies, MIT; Curious Pictures; Simon Greenberg; Fireworks by Grucci; Andrea Hall; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; Stephanie Joson; Tomoko Kimata; The Kitchen; Jennifer Wen Ma; Rita MacDonald; The Maritime Hotel; MASS MoCA; Dean Moss; Nicole Parente; Sarah Paulson; Soundtrack F/T; Mari Spirito; The Arthur M. Sackler and Freer Gallery of Art; Amm Talluto; Charwei Tsai; & Adam Whiton.
Director of Education & Outreach: Jessica Hamlin. Director of Development: Kathi Pavlick. Development Associate: Sara Simonson.
Interns: Susan Agliata, Nathan Townes-Anderson, Hannah Blumenthal, Agnes Bolt, Lisa Charde, Mary Chou, Kate Crawford, Amanda Donnan, Sophie Dunoyer de Segonzac, Suzy Foster, Jules Gaffney, Katie Hen, Heather Hughes, Adam Krakowski, Georgia Kung, David Mark Kupperberg, Maiko Kyogoku, Phil Logan, Lisa Margulies, Michelle Maydanchik, Carla Meyers, Christine Miller, Geoffrey Pan, Sujay Pandit, Jihan Robinson, Jennifer Sarkilahti, Megan Scally, Karen Seapker, Greg Shilling, Sarah Sliwa, Jennifer Smith, & Elizabeth Swift.
Public Relations: Kelly & Salerno Communications. Station Relations: De Shields Associates, Inc. Legal Counsel: Albert Gottesman. Bookkeeper: Marea Alverio-Chaveco & William Handy.
Major underwriting for Season 3 of Art in the Twenty-First Century is provided by National Endowment for the Arts, PBS, Agnes Gund and Daniel Shapiro, Nathan Cummings Foundation, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Jon and Mary Shirley Foundation, Bagley Wright Fund Bloomberg, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, JPMorgan Chase, Melva Bucksbaum and Raymond Learsy, The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
Closed captionsAvailable in English, German, Romanian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Italian
Through the Art21 Translation Project, multilingual audiences from around the globe can contribute translations, making Art21 films more accessible worldwide.
Interested in showing this film in an exhibition or public screening? To license this video please visit Licensing & Reproduction.
Laylah Ali creates her small, figurative, gouache paintings on paper with such precision that it takes her many months to complete a single work. She meticulously plots out every aspect of her work in advance, from subject matter to choice of color and the brushes that she will use. Her paintings resemble comic-book serials, but they also contain stylistic references to hieroglyphics and American folk-art traditions. Ali often achieves a high level of emotional tension in her work as a result of juxtaposing brightly colored scenes with dark, often violent subject matter that speaks of political resistance, social relationships, and betrayal. Although Ali’s interest in representations of socio-political issues and current events drives her work, her finished paintings rarely reveal specific references.
“I’m acting on impulse in these drawings. And I think it’s important to keep that part really alive.”
Laylah Ali
Laylah Ali
Laylah Ali
Laylah Ali
Laylah Ali
Artist at Work
More from "Power"
Preview
