AM: Given that RailSpur is a considerably larger scale space than places we have been showing, I felt like the images had to scale up. I am super not into framing my self-portraits because of the feeling of formality that comes with it, so using acrylic was a really practical decision to retain this priority.

AM: Yes, for sure. I'm not a photographer, so printing is still something I'm learning about. What I'm passionate about is using light to create a sense of intangibility in my work. I see these prints as representations that are made physically, and it's important to me to maintain this sense of intangibility when I'm printing these images.

AM: I usually do this in two ways. First, it is in very physical ways that span mark-making, such as working in 16mm film, photography, and print. I take autonomy by obscuring and scratching myself out of the images. The other half is on the opposite spectrum, thinking about how the state and systems identify people, which generally goes more into the digital side.

For example, ID Photo (Self-Portrait) employs a discernably regulated mode of self-portraiture for government identification. Ali explained that they took this photograph for a passport and then asked the computer to decide how to pixellate the image by running codes that erase the frame and tell the pixels where to put things in the image. The primary image that gets distorted throughout the video features an above-shoulder, head-centered image of the artist in front of an off-white, plain background. As their facial features break and blur, question the extent to which we can identify the artist as themselves, or the image as representative of their body. At which point of distortion do they stop being easily recognizable as themselves; further, at which point does their body cease to be read as a discernable human form, and just a lump of pixels?

AM: At the end of the day, it is working with code… so I have plug-ins and software that can manipulate things for me. But at the end of the day, I am most interested in the literal code that makes up images and sounds when I am working digitally. But then of course I mediate a lot of physical film in digitized ways, especially when I have to show at different venues that may or may not accommodate projectors.

Curious about the choices they make when digitizing their works made by manipulating film strips, I ask what the process of working with physical film has been like. They answer that scratching the surface of a film strip is quite laborious, and as a result, the works that feature their bodies scratched out are always intentional tasks and require close attention.

AM: Given that you need to scratch the film over a hundred times to get maybe two seconds, it becomes a metaphor for something that stands out as a harder thing to remove myself from. People could have a reading of it as “Oh, you are removing yourself,” but I am just really interested in it turning into some sort of meaningless labor.

AM: Yes, none of the works in this exhibition feature these, but I also often experiment with overlapping the digital projections of film I created by manipulating physical material and elements such as light. Allowing viewers to step in and obscure the projections in an exhibition space feels like I am creating a new level of autonomy from the viewer’s side as well. I enjoy finding possibilities where the audience can participate and add a third dimension of perspective and meaning to these elements.

Ali values avoiding a visual outcome that is “too tangible.” Such an intention is a primary way for them to accentuate their key artistic concern, which is to address perceptions of identity, body, and selfhood that are perpetually in flux.AM: My work initially aimed to communicate my transgender experience, but increasingly it felt like it was too singular of a viewpoint for me to operate from. Then my work transitioned more into exploring the idea that we are all in transition all the time.

AM: My work initially aimed to communicate my transgender experience, but increasingly it felt like it was too singular of a viewpoint for me to operate from. Then my work transitioned more into exploring the idea that we are all in transition all the time.

AM: Exactly. I think the ultimate queer lens is recognizing and taking in stride that everyone is always going to be not the same as they were even a minute ago.
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