Priya, 2008-2011 16mm film
The themes that run throughout Alia Syed’s works are memory, representation, and colonialism. She constructs these themes through narratives from both personal and historical realities as well as through shifts in narrative from past to present. Utilizing both 16mm film and high-definition video, Syed mixes elements of sound, texture, and narrative to explore different subjects’ positions in relation to culture, location, and diaspora. In regard to her work, Syed has remarked, “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.”
Alia Syed was born in Swansea, Wales. She attended the University of East London, UK, where she received her BA with Honors in Fine Art in 1987. In 1992 she graduated from the Slade School of Fine Art London, UK where she earned her Post Graduate Higher Diploma in Mixed Media. She lives and works in London, UK. She has been working in experimental filmmaking for over two decades. Syed’s films have been shown at numerous institutions around the world including the Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, CT; Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, CA; Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain; XV Sydney Biennale; Hayward Gallery, London; Tate Britain, London; Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), Glasgow, Scotland; The New Art Gallery in Walsall, UK; and Tate Modern, London. Syed was shortlisted for the 2015 Jarman Award for innovation and experimentation in film making in Britain.
Meta Incognita: Missive II, 2019
HD Video
53 minutes
Meta Incognita: Missive II (Film Still)
Meta Incognita: Missive II (Film Still)
Observation Post, 2018
Pigment print on Hahnemuhle paper
57.6” x 72”
(Created in collaboration with Matthew Walter)
Observation Post (detail)
NE51.5400, 2018
Pigment print on Hahnemuhle paper
16 3/4” x 23 1/2”
Panopticon Letter's Missive I, 2012
16mm/Digital
23 minutes
Panopticon Letter's Missive I, 2012
Panopticon Letter's Missive I (Film Still)
Panopticon Letter's Missive I (Film Still)
Panopticon Letter's Missive I (Film Still)
On a Wing and a Prayer, 2016
HD video, sound
19 minutes
On a Wing and a Prayer (Film Still)
Priya, 2011
16mm film
13 minutes
Priya (Film Still)
Priya 1, 2007-8
C Print from 16 mm film
45" x 34 1/2"
Priya (detail)
Wallpaper, 2010
16 mm film
1 hour 6 minutes
Wallpaper (Film Still)
Wallpaper (Film Still)
Wallpaper (Film Still)
Wallpaper (Film Still)
Eating Grass, 2003
Film
24 minutes
(filmed in Karachi, Lahore, and London)
Eating Grass (Film Still)
Eating Grass (Film Still)
Eating Grass (Film Still)
Eating Grass (Film Still)
Swan, 1989
16mm film
4 minutes
Swan (Film Still)
Swan (Film Still)
