In a recent unpretentious statement he says:  "At the moment I am working on group compositions with shadowy, standing figures against unrecognizable spaces.   The main idea behind these images is to draw attention to the transient nature of human existence.  Without being too narrative my intention is to achieve a good balance between form and content".

This statement is helpful, as far as it goes, and Ali deliberately eschews soul-searching analysis of his images and of the psychological or spiritual well-beings which prompt his depictions, (beyond referring to "the transient nature of human existence").  But the effect on the viewer can be more disturbing than this implies.  The abiding impression, even when the image is peopled with figures apparently going about their business, is that time has stood still.  There is a powerful sense of the isolation of the individual, often seen in silhouette or moving (?) away, frozen in (negative) space like people in a game of grandmother's footsteps.  The woman waiting at the bus stop (again rear view) is the quintessence of her particular human condition.  There is a sense of evanescence in these images which suggests that if one turns away they will evaporate.

None of this could be achieved without an unfaltering, indeed inevitable, almost pre-ordained, technique - what Ali modestly describes as a "good balance between form and content ".  In this context for "content" read "translation".

 

Keith Hunter