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| Doa Aly |
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| Born in 1976 in Cairo, Aly lives and works in Cairo. Aly's main sources of inspiration are the study of human anatomy and performance-based industries such as dance, circus acrobatics, and fashion. Her ongoing research examines the interactions between the individual and community on one level, and the consequent shift between the self and projected image: the mental processes, aspirations and frustrations therein. Pursuing the idea of a better self, in hope to gain more access, gives way to a false type of individuality, one that Aly suggests is instantly expressed through body language and movement. Aly initially set out to explore the body’s physicality and the codes through which it accesses public space; the constant struggle to ‘become’, which finds expression in performance and movement, and engulfs all aspects of being. If body image defines identity, then she suggests that body image is in turn defined by an individual’s degree of physical mobility. Any given set of movements, no matter how elaborate or basic, enters the repertoire of ‘physical history’, which then dictates the levels of comfort and harmony. When confronted with the impossibility of fully assimilating new states of existence, one falls back on alternative glossaries of access, within which the primary self is distorted and the potential remains unattained. The hypothetical result is a state that is neither connected with past history, nor does it propose future progress. These transient states are Aly's main sources of inspiration. She's interested in all examples of departure from an initial self in quest of an alternative one providing that there be a flagrant contrast between the two. Aly graduated in 2001 with a BA in painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cairo. Her academic training led her to develop an interest in body-image and movement. Aly has recently taken part in a number of group shows such as Port City at the Arnolfini Museum, Bristol, UK; Recognise at the Contemporary Art Forum, London, UK; Dessins Projets at l’Appartement 22 in Rabat, Morocco. In 2006 and 2007 she participated in the 7th Dakar Biennial, Senegal; Snap Judgements at the International Center of Photography in New York, and The Maghreb Connection at the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève. Her work was included in the screening program In Focus at the Tate Modern in London in 2007. Aly works with Mashrabia Gallery, Cairo and Galerie Kamel Mennour, Paris. |
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