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There was this cosmic dust that fell at our feet; we watched it surround us, our bodies and minds, until we began to glow ourselves. What can we sing to ourselves to get through challenging times? Hiba Ali’s exhibition, Lullabies for the stars in our eyes, is a portal into Ali’s bodily world-building on the coastlines of the Swahili-Indian Ocean.In this large-scale sculptural installation, metallic pools invite the audience in an act of co-creation to rake surrounding sand as they gaze at video works and listen to the installation’s sonic reverberations. Paired with this is a VR meditative installation, Lullabies for tears, which invites visitors to be guided by Ali’s avatar, the star, on a somatic body-processing journey.
Ali examines affect (the ability to impact change) and its world-building capacity for emergence and potential in their matrilineal languages of Arabic, Arwi and Tamil. Thinking through the power of the breath found in the letter of “h”, written as ھ ح ہہ ஹ in Arabic and Arwi, Ali explores the back of the throat where secrets, anger and sadness dwell. Through historical research, they narrate their experience of love, loss and queer joy found in the body and its spirit.
The exhibition is an immersion into interpretation that, like our bodies, changes, slips, and ultimately, refuses to sit still as any one single thing.
About the Artist
Hiba Ali, PhD, shares their digital art in the form of immersive digital environments, sculpture-based installations, moving images, garments, and sound. They developed the term, digital somatics, to embody the body-mind-spirit connection to the principles of game design, worldbuilding and narrative storytelling. They use virtual reality, 3D animation and augmented reality to slow down time and create portals of solace and care and consider the digital portal as a liminal space where they call forth more loving and healing into our world. Born in Karachi, Pakistan, they grew up in Chicago and Toronto and their heritage links the coastlines of Swahili, Coromandel and Arabian Sea. They find home in the languages of Swahili, Urdu, Arabic, Tamil and Telugu.
They are an Assistant Professor at the College of Design in the Art & Technology program at the University of Oregon in Eugene and they teach about decolonial, feminist, anti-racist frameworks in digital art pedagogies. Their work has been presented in Chicago, Stockholm, Zanzibar, Vienna, Berlin, Toronto, New York, Istanbul, São Paulo, Detroit, Windsor, Dubai, Austin, Vancouver, and Portland.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
1311 E. Cesar Chavez, Austin, TX, United States, Texas 78702
