Alia Syed (born 1964) is an experimental filmmaker and artist of Welsh-Indian descent.
[1] Born in Swansea, Wales, Syed earned her Bachelors in Fine Arts from the University of East London in 1987 and a Postgraduate degree in Mixed Media from the Slade School of Fine Art in 1992.
Syed’s work has been screened and exhibited in museums, galleries, and festivals worldwide, including at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA),[2] Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City,[3] Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid,[4] Institute of International Visual Arts (inIVA) in London,[5] and the Talwar Gallery, which has represented her for over a decade, in New York City and in New Delhi.
Syed’s work focuses on issues of identity, representation, and language, often incorporating sound and text, in addition to images and characters, to explore and question structures of personal and collective narrative.
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…I [am] interested in what happens when you hold more than one ‘culture’ within you at any given time.”[7] 2019: Meta Incognita: Missive II 2016: On a wing and a prayer (text by David Herd) 2010–2013: Panopticon Letters: Missive I 2008–2011: Priya 2006–2011: A Story Told 2010: Wallpaper 2005: LA Diary 2003: Eating Grass 2001: Spoken Diary 1994: The Watershed 1991: Fatima's Letter 1989: Three Paces, Swan 1987: Unfolding 1985: Durga 2010- Tate Britain, Conversation Pieces, London, UK 2005- Los Angeles County Museum of Arts (LACMA), Eating Grass, Los Angeles, CA 2000- Tate Modern, Watershed in Performing Bodies, London, UK 1997- Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), Fatima's Letter, London, UK 1996- Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), Watershed in Pandemonium, London, UK 1994- Ikon Gallery, Fatima's Letter in Beyond Destination, Birmingham, UK 1991- Tate Gallery, Fatima's Letter in 25 years of British Avant Garde, London, UK