Join us for a discussion between artist Pilvi Takala and Ali Eisa (Lloyd Corporation) on the development of her work, with a focus on her latest installation, Close Watch (2022).
Takala works through video, performance, and installation, to stress test the conventions and codes that govern our daily interactions. Infiltrating offices, theme parks, shopping malls, and public spaces, she adopts a softly disruptive but camouflaged persona; an intern, Snow White, or a ‘wellness consultant’. Her behaviour prompts reactions that are revealing of those around her. Often humorous, sometimes threatening or perplexing, her actions force those around her to articulate their discomfort, so delineating soft boundaries that have been crossed. Our social norms are quietly revealed to be disciplined by the conventions of capitalist culture, shaping us in a mould of consumer rather than citizen. Exceptionally, Takala’s work takes us beyond the revelation of these complex issues. The idea of resolution, or the invitation to think beyond critique is firmly embedded within the work.
BIOGRAPHIES
Ali Eisa (b.1987) is an artist and educator based in London. He is an artist and co-founder of Lloyd Corporation, a long-term collaborative project with artist Sebastian Lloyd Rees. Working together since 2010 their practice utilizes sculpture, installation, performance and participation, often taking inspiration from informal and local economies.
Ali is the Learning & Participation Manager at Autograph, a visual arts charity supporting photography and film exploring issues of identity, representation and social justice. With over 10 years experience in community arts and youth work, Ali develops and facilitates participatory projects, with a particular interest in issues of human rights, empowerment and access for people from highly marginalised backgrounds including young refugees and asylum seekers, neurodiverse and disabled people. Ali is a lecturer in BA Fine Art at Goldsmiths University and has been visiting lecturer at UK institutions including UAL, Royal College, Royal Academy, Kings College, Middlesex, University of East London.
