Anisa Nuh-Ali (b.1994, Sweden) is an artist and researcher based in Sheffield, UK. Nuh-Ali works in a wide variety of media ranging from installation, moving image, assemblage, paint and sound; creating sculptural readymades. Working with a wide mix of tools and techniques, she has a continued exploration into found and inherited objects. Through activating these objects and materials, Nuh-Ali investigates the expectations of Black performativity, specifically focusing on the commodified sporting and entertainment spectacle, as well as culture, memory, language and rituals found in her heritage.
Nuh-Ali looks at what makes certain objects ‘Black’ and synonymous with ‘Blackness’ – by exploring the connections and connotations these objects draw. She puts Black narratives at the forefront of her practice and looks to oral histories and communities, whilst utilising archives as a tool for re-imagining.
She mostly draws from her experiences as a Black Muslim woman, as her work is a personal account of the self, as well as a study into the intersections that these main three identities hold, within collective and diasporic memory. Her practice is intrinsically linked to her identity and she draws from her day to day life; the mundane through conversations, mapping, her environment, examining and commenting on politics, society and aesthetics. She does this through careful archival research and revelatory conversations with her family and community. Nuh-Ali’s practice revolves heavily around the process of making and unmaking; whether that be with objects, historical references, text, iconography, language and oral histories to translate and contextualise her experiences.
Website: cargocollective.com/anisanuux/about
Instagram: @anisanuhlinga
Anisa Nuh-Ali, Fragments, 2022
Banner image: Anisa Nuh-Ali, Celebrating Joy with HOME by Ronan Mckenzie, 2022. Billboard campaign
