Nº81: Alia Hamaoui
The visual artist talks Yemini hot sauce, go-pro bull-riding, and prohibition era Hoofer Shoes.
We’re back with Alia Hamaoui. Read on to find out what she’s into, and if you’re new here, hit subscribe for secret recommendations every week.
Alia Hamaoui is a London-based visual artist.
☞ FAV OBJECTS IN MY POSESSION:
GR4CE bags - does illicit the odd comment from strangers who have shouted 'grenade' or 'dog-poo bag'.
Anna Gonzalez Noguchi artwork Afternoon De-light
Apple cider vinegar - essential for sunburns
☞ REFERENCES STUCK IN MY MIND:
Ariana Grande in SNL as a Castrati (thnx Riwa Saab)
Hoofer shoes (worn in the prohibition era- cow hoofs on the bottom of their shoes, worn as a disguise when walking through the woods to make moonshine) (thnx joe bradley hill)
1914 Norweigen photo album (thnx Amanda Möstrom)
☞ SHOUT OUT: To the collective that I am a part of alongside Maia Magoga and Fenella Brereton - gobyfish collective. Look out for a cookbook/research/archive publication coming out later this year or next.
☞ WANNA LEARN A NEW SPORT?: If you identify as non-binary, trans or a woman come play basketball at Queens of Peckham or Hackney Rebels. It’s really fun I promise.
☞ ZHUUUG: It’s the one. Put it on everything. A yemini salsa/hot sauce with a base of coriander and spiced with cardoman and cumin.
☞ READING: I have a habit of buying a zillion books in one go, carrying about half of them in one go and finishing very few of them. Currently in the bag is:
The Plague - Jacqueline Rose: Exploring contemporary events in the West to call for a re-orientation with our relationship to death - one where we must learn to live with rather then pushed to the outer limits of our concious mind.
The Terrorist in Search of Humanity: Militant Islam and Global Politics -Faisal Devji: Exploring militant Islam as a search for a global politics- informed by the same search that animates humanitarianism, which from human rights to humanitarian intervention has become the global aim.
How do we look? - Fatimah Tobing Rony: drawing on the transnational visual images of Indonesian women as a way to theorize what she calls visual biopolitics - the ways visual representation determines which lives are made to matter more than others.
☞ FAV LONDON SPOTS:
Sikatio Restaurant Bar & Grill: Ivorian restaurant in Brockley
Porchester spa: Sauna and turkish baths - reasonably priced, beautiful interior- take your book and park up on their sun loungers in their for the day
El Marsem on Old Kent road for harissa chicken liver, fries sandwich
☞ ARTISTS CURRENTLY ON MY MIND:
☞ MEMORABLE YOUTUBE CLIPS OF THE WEEK:
Go Pro bull riding: 3 minutes of crotch shot buildup with 10 seconds of actual bull riding.
Balloons how they are made: The visuals are steamy and sultry.
♪ LISTENING TO: Bjork's song Violently Happy from the album Debut, Spaccanapoli - O'Mare and Munira Khayatt's lecture on Jaadaliya: Resistant Ecologies in a Landscape of war
☠ HATES: Undeclared onions in food on menus
Thanks Alia! Follow Alia here!
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