Hiba Ali

Con-tain-er

FILE Sao Paulo 2019 | Videoart
Electronic Language International Festival

 
https://vimeo.com/hal1
 

The ‘Con-tain-er’ video excavates the shipping container industry in North America and traces the historic “flows” of people and goods: the silk road, spice trade, the triangular trade including slavery, Columbian exchange and to the most current, refugees. The present day movement of goods across borders, zones and spaces is commonplace in our daily reality; however, it is relegated to the background of our contemporary globalization. The popping of balloons and patrolling of an artificial border, constructed of Amazon-ordered catch-all “international” flags, calls to attention the axis on which cultural exchanges have occurred. This work refers to the uneven spread of globalization, specifically how corporate production makes invisible offshore labor into an easily discarded tag of “Made in___.”

Bio.

Hiba Ali is a new media artist, writer, curator and musician from Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. Her performances and videos concern music, labor and power. Her music performances as H1BA sample her immigrant, black, brown, and refugee background. She conducts reading groups addressing digital media and workshops with opensource technology. She is a Ph.D candidate in Cultural Studies at Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada.