The Art Pledge
Portrait of Sophia Al Maria

Photo: Bernice Mulenga. Courtesy the artist and The Third Line.

Sophia Al Maria

Born in
1983
From
Tacoma, United States of America
Lives and works
London, United Kingdom
Represented by
The Third Line
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophia_Al_Maria

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I've come out of a period of extreme anxiety and fear of the future, into one of feeling hopeful through being open to change. It's not that there's nothing to lose. At some point it becomes clear there's nothing to have.

Biography

Sophia Al Maria is a Qatari-American artist, writer and filmmaker. Working primarily with film and narrative text, the artist weaves captivating tales as a way of processing her thoughts about the future, particularly in the current pace of biodiversity extinction. Dealing with geopolitical questions of our time through the lens of 'hyper subjectivity', her multidisciplinary practice gravitates around science fiction and fantasy, creating depictions of a dystopian future where she recognizes the possibility of the end of life as we know it.


We readily detect in Al Maria's films issues of feminism, imperialism, post-colonial identity, representation, and desire. The artist's visions are informed in the tradition of science fiction authors, specially French filmmaker Chris Marker, who introduced dystopian themes and aesthetics in art, depicting human kind responsible for their own collapse.


Fritz Lang’s pioneering masterpiece Metropolis shares with Sophia Al Maria’s work its dystopian tone. The term ‘Gulf Futurism’ echoes the filmmaker’s vision of the “modern” city where skyscrapers and technology contribute to the decline of our world.

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