Alaa Edris at 1x1 Art Gallery

Unreal. Unseen. Untouched. at 1x1 Gallery is the first solo show from UAE-based artist Alla Edris, and will feature work spanning the past decade – as well as new pieces being show for the first time.

Alaa Edris is a visual artist who uses photography, film and performance to enact experimental mappings and manipulations of her social and urban environment. She contends with dominant issues from the field of Arab artistic research, including the construction of gender, the relationship between tradition and progress, and language as a medium for identifying, shaping and articulating a culture.
Her work embodies the disciplines of cartography, anthropology and scientific voyeurism to investigate a varied landscape of evolving cultures, fluid social interactions and identity. Her images – moments captured in moving time – speak to ever-expanding narratives and investigate the UAE in the late 2010s. Each piece shifts between the familiar and unfamiliar, mining through the mountains of gender constructs, language, folklore, social history and urban environments with the keen eye of a native.

Edris’ work has been presented in exhibitions across the region and internationally, including From Barcelona to Abu Dhabi: Works from the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA in dialogue with the Emirates), Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi (2018); Is Old Gold?, Dubai Community Theatre and Art Centre (DUCTAC), Dubai (2017); Al Haraka Baraka, Maraya Arts Centre, Sharjah (2016); Past Forward: Contemporary Art from the Emirates, touring exhibition to Washington, DC and six US states (2014–2016); In the Absence of Script, Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah (2014) and Moving Image Art Fair, London (2013).