OxTalks will soon move to the new Halo platform and will become 'Oxford Events.' There will be a need for an OxTalks freeze. This was previously planned for Friday 14th November – a new date will be shared as soon as it is available (full details will be available on the Staff Gateway).
In the meantime, the OxTalks site will remain active and events will continue to be published.
If staff have any questions about the Oxford Events launch, please contact halo@digital.ox.ac.uk
Emii Alrai will discuss her sculptural and installation-based practice, which explores artefacts, the Western museum construct, and memory.
An artist talk which will converge Alrai’s practice and methods of recreating artefacts with the construction and architecture of the imperial museum, and how it has affected our understanding of our own relationship to material, imagination and the body sensorium.
Emii Alrai is a British born Iraqi artist whose work weaves together ancient mythologies and oral histories from nostalgia and museum collections to form objects which imitate archaeological artefacts. Concerned with the fluidity of memory and its relationship to the static presence of history, Alrai’s work draws attention to the contrast between the polished aesthetics of the western museum and the states of ruin which befall relics. Working primarily in sculpture and installation, her work operates as large-scale realms which mimic museum dioramas and the natural environments from which archeological objects are excavated. Clay vessels, gypsum forms and steel armatures punctuate the spaces she creates, calling on the lingering ghosts of Empire and reconsidering our romanticised visions of the past.
