I am continuing to work with direct animation, working onto leader film strips and playing it back through 8mm film projectors. This work is allowing me to slow down and look in-between the cities I curate my exhibitions in. I have curated the Engagement & Entrapment exhibition in Israel/Palestine, Cyprus and recently in South Korea. Although exciting and enticing, I asked myself it was time to concentrate on the bits we don’t see, the details we miss and getting out of the bubble of making work which can become self-immersive. Of the cities I travelled, I always had a side project which was to photograph the side streets and the ‘behind the scenes’ of the main landmarks we are expected to see as foreigners. The collection of animations document the last 10 years of side streets taken from around the world, from Bangladesh, to Peru to Italy to Wales. They are produced as negatives, then as animations showing the gradual changes from dawn till dusk and from city to city.
I have also just finished filming as a mentor for The Big Painting Challenge Series 3 with the BBC. Through this I have worked with different sectors in promoting the importance of the arts. This has been done with businesses, Southwark Cathedral and the Institute of Mental Health and the NHS. I am currently participating in the FaceValue Katy Perry Foundation exhibition and planning to curate the exhibition ‘Loss & Lucidity’ in the US.
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Read Diana’s original interview with CVAN EM here.
For more about Diana’s work visit her website: http://www.dianaali.com/ or follow Diana on Instagram: @diana_artist_curator