Untitled (Greenheads)
Artist
Laylah Ali
(American, born 1968)
Date1997
Mediumgraphite and gouache on white wove paper
Dimensions24.4 x 21 cm (sheet)
ClassificationsDrawings
Credit LineCharlotte E.W. Buffington Fund
Object number1998.98
Label TextLaylah Ali’s allegorical paintings both demand and deny rigorous interpretation. Coded by color of heads and uniforms, Ali’s alien characters engage in complicated and often grim power struggles. Meticulously painted in a flat graphic aesthetic, Ali’s images exploit the highly legible conventions of cartoon fantasies but their narratives, she says, “are very much related to the world in which I live—and to the weird, unpredictable complexity of human encounters and responses to other people’s race, gender, and sexuality…I am interested in the idea of parallel societies and assimilation; how different groups and individuals appear to be working together, but how that is often subverted…Sometimes I think my work is about the desire to take radical action. Or to create heroes who come to save the day. But the violence—it rarely seems to work out for the best in the drawings.”
ProvenancePurchased from Miller Block Gallery, BostonOn View
Not on view
