Alibaba Conundrum, an artistic group formed by Vancouver-based artists Ali Ahadi and Babak Golkar presents its debut exhibition at Griffin Art Projects.

Showcasing multimedia works, including a short film, sculpture, a sound-installation, wallpaper, and a series of printed image-based objects the exhibition critically examines how different ways of seeing, and subsequently those of saying, are manufactured today through the hegemony of the English language, globally conditioning possibilities of thinking. It also explores how the links between the socio-economic structures of neoliberalism, Christian theology, and the global institution of art (with its English grammar), maintain the contemporary habitus of thinking through diverse regimes of image production and media cybernetics.

In the contemporary world, one is either marked and affected by voicing/responding to the speaking of English, or one is equally left unmarked and still affected by the inability to voice that speaking. With the omnipresence of English, every peripheral language (vis-à-vis English) attempting to connect to the world becomes a torsion of English. Therefore, one is either an English-speaking-thinking subject or one is simply defined as the negation of it. In other words, every English-speaking subject is also a non-English-speaking subject, and every non-English speaking subject is definitely an English-speaking subject. The problem is the extremely unequal struggle for recognition between the two, the asymmetrical proportion of this dialectic. It is within this context that Alibaba Conundrum is a performer of the negation of the negation, a syntax/grammar attempting to counter-symbolize the grammar of the institution of art. In a word, Alibaba Conundrum is an It.

The Alibaba Conundrum project considers how the English language and its enduring global impact directly but quietly conditions everyday experience and how it surreptitiously shapes individual subjects and citizens by posing as the ‘norm.’

In their work Alibaba Conundrum also explores the English language as a diasporic structure. Tracing the artists’ migration from Farsi to the English language, this project critically examines how different ways of seeing and processes of creating and presenting subjectivities are produced through media and via cybernetics, under the hegemony of the English language.

The project further explores how socio-economic structures reproduce themselves through image-based platforms, and how these adhere to modes of late capitalism within contemporary life.
The artists state, “Allegorically, the term Alibaba points to two disparate subjects: the Orientalized story of Alibaba and the Forty Thieves of Baghdad, inserted by Antoine Galland into A Thousand and One Nights; and its contemporary signification, “alibaba.com”. The digital interface and the algorithmic logic of such platforms condition the contemporary Alibaba citizen’s desire to seeing, resulting in their automatic consumption through that seeing.”

In their work, Alibaba Conundrum addresses how vision and language have transformed as, during the pandemic period, the media’s polarizing enforcement of reductive language for complex issues has further deepened neoliberal subjectivities performed as instrumentalized capital.

Through installations comprising a short film, sculpture, wallpaper, and a series of printed, image-based objects, Alibaba Conundrum calls our attention to the problem of escape–how can one find an outside to the English language? Alibaba Conundrum suggests that there is no outside to the English language in contemporary life. It is a conundrum of epic proportions, which the artists demonstrate unequivocally within this project.

Alibaba Conundrum, an artistic group formed by Vancouver-based artists Ali Ahadi and Babak Golkar presents its debut exhibition at Griffin Art Projects.

Showcasing multimedia works, including a short film, sculpture, a sound-installation, wallpaper, and a series of printed image-based objects the exhibition critically examines how different ways of seeing, and subsequently those of saying, are manufactured today through the hegemony of the English language, globally conditioning possibilities of thinking. It also explores how the links between the socio-economic structures of neoliberalism, Christian theology, and the global institution of art (with its English grammar), maintain the contemporary habitus of thinking through diverse regimes of image production and media cybernetics.

In the contemporary world, one is either marked and affected by voicing/responding to the speaking of English, or one is equally left unmarked and still affected by the inability to voice that speaking. With the omnipresence of English, every peripheral language (vis-à-vis English) attempting to connect to the world becomes a torsion of English. Therefore, one is either an English-speaking-thinking subject or one is simply defined as the negation of it. In other words, every English-speaking subject is also a non-English-speaking subject, and every non-English speaking subject is definitely an English-speaking subject. The problem is the extremely unequal struggle for recognition between the two, the asymmetrical proportion of this dialectic. It is within this context that Alibaba Conundrum is a performer of the negation of the negation, a syntax/grammar attempting to counter-symbolize the grammar of the institution of art. In a word, Alibaba Conundrum is an It.

The Alibaba Conundrum project considers how the English language and its enduring global impact directly but quietly conditions everyday experience and how it surreptitiously shapes individual subjects and citizens by posing as the ‘norm.’

In their work Alibaba Conundrum also explores the English language as a diasporic structure. Tracing the artists’ migration from Farsi to the English language, this project critically examines how different ways of seeing and processes of creating and presenting subjectivities are produced through media and via cybernetics, under the hegemony of the English language.

The project further explores how socio-economic structures reproduce themselves through image-based platforms, and how these adhere to modes of late capitalism within contemporary life.
The artists state, “Allegorically, the term Alibaba points to two disparate subjects: the Orientalized story of Alibaba and the Forty Thieves of Baghdad, inserted by Antoine Galland into A Thousand and One Nights; and its contemporary signification, “alibaba.com”. The digital interface and the algorithmic logic of such platforms condition the contemporary Alibaba citizen’s desire to seeing, resulting in their automatic consumption through that seeing.”

In their work, Alibaba Conundrum addresses how vision and language have transformed as, during the pandemic period, the media’s polarizing enforcement of reductive language for complex issues has further deepened neoliberal subjectivities performed as instrumentalized capital.

Through installations comprising a short film, sculpture, wallpaper, and a series of printed, image-based objects, Alibaba Conundrum calls our attention to the problem of escape–how can one find an outside to the English language? Alibaba Conundrum suggests that there is no outside to the English language in contemporary life. It is a conundrum of epic proportions, which the artists demonstrate unequivocally within this project.

The Alibaba Conundrum project considers how the English language and its enduring global impact directly but quietly conditions everyday experience and how it surreptitiously shapes individual subjects and citizens by posing as the ‘norm.’

In their work Alibaba Conundrum also explores the English language as a diasporic structure. Tracing the artists’ migration from Farsi to the English language, this project critically examines how different ways of seeing and processes of creating and presenting subjectivities are produced through media and via cybernetics, under the hegemony of the English language.

The project further explores how socio-economic structures reproduce themselves through image-based platforms, and how these adhere to modes of late capitalism within contemporary life.
The artists state, “Allegorically, the term Alibaba points to two disparate subjects: the Orientalized story of Alibaba and the Forty Thieves of Baghdad, inserted by Antoine Galland into A Thousand and One Nights; and its contemporary signification, “alibaba.com”. The digital interface and the algorithmic logic of such platforms condition the contemporary Alibaba citizen’s desire to seeing, resulting in their automatic consumption through that seeing.”

In their work, Alibaba Conundrum addresses how vision and language have transformed as, during the pandemic period, the media’s polarizing enforcement of reductive language for complex issues has further deepened neoliberal subjectivities performed as instrumentalized capital.

Through installations comprising a short film, sculpture, wallpaper, and a series of printed, image-based objects, Alibaba Conundrum calls our attention to the problem of escape–how can one find an outside to the English language? Alibaba Conundrum suggests that there is no outside to the English language in contemporary life. It is a conundrum of epic proportions, which the artists demonstrate unequivocally within this project.

This ongoing series builds on Griffin Art Projects’ mandate to share privately held art collections with the public. Join Griffin Art Projects in conversation with collector Yves Pierre-Louis and gallerist Hugues Charbonneau for a virtual discussion on alternative art-collecting economies.

Yves Pierre-Louis is a Haitian-born Canadian whose widowed father emigrated to Canada in the late 60’s as part of the wave of Haitian professionals who fled Francois ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier’s dictatorship. Though his family did not collect artworks, they always appreciated and celebrated the visual arts that are such a hallmark of Haitian culture. He has expanded on that tradition through collecting art, and his fervent wish is that his legacy will inspire future generations of Pierre-Louis to continue what he has begun. In 1988 he purchased his first artwork, a mixed media montage created by a friend’s brother. He started thinking seriously about building a collection when he visited Galerie Hugues Charbonneau, where he acquired his first painting by Manuel Mathieu. He is now primarily focused on collecting works by Afro-descendant artists with whom he feels a connection, and with whom he tries to develop relationships to support their practice.

Hugues Charbonneau was born in Montréal-Nord in 1975. He began his career in the visual arts at the Musée d’art contemporain des Laurentides and then at Esse magazine. He founded his gallery in 2012. Galerie Hugues Charbonneau is a contemporary art gallery based in downtown Montreal. Its exhibition program celebrates the cultural diversity and the innovative potential of contemporary metropoles. The gallery accompanies artists, curators and collectors through exhibitions within its walls, public artworks, art fairs and collaborations with museums and biennials. Collaborators of the gallery have exhibited at the Venice Biennial, the Dak’art Biennial, the Whitney Museum, The Power Plant and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, among other institutions.

The Alibaba Conundrum project considers how the English language and its enduring global impact directly but quietly conditions everyday experience and how it surreptitiously shapes individual subjects and citizens by posing as the ‘norm.’

In their work Alibaba Conundrum also explores the English language as a diasporic structure. Tracing the artists’ migration from Farsi to the English language, this project critically examines how different ways of seeing and processes of creating and presenting subjectivities are produced through media and via cybernetics, under the hegemony of the English language.

The project further explores how socio-economic structures reproduce themselves through image-based platforms, and how these adhere to modes of late capitalism within contemporary life.
The artists state, “Allegorically, the term Alibaba points to two disparate subjects: the Orientalized story of Alibaba and the Forty Thieves of Baghdad, inserted by Antoine Galland into A Thousand and One Nights; and its contemporary signification, “alibaba.com”. The digital interface and the algorithmic logic of such platforms condition the contemporary Alibaba citizen’s desire to seeing, resulting in their automatic consumption through that seeing.”

In their work, Alibaba Conundrum addresses how vision and language have transformed as, during the pandemic period, the media’s polarizing enforcement of reductive language for complex issues has further deepened neoliberal subjectivities performed as instrumentalized capital.

Through installations comprising a short film, sculpture, wallpaper, and a series of printed, image-based objects, Alibaba Conundrum calls our attention to the problem of escape–how can one find an outside to the English language? Alibaba Conundrum suggests that there is no outside to the English language in contemporary life. It is a conundrum of epic proportions, which the artists demonstrate unequivocally within this project.

The Alibaba Conundrum project considers how the English language and its enduring global impact directly but quietly conditions everyday experience and how it surreptitiously shapes individual subjects and citizens by posing as the ‘norm.’

In their work Alibaba Conundrum also explores the English language as a diasporic structure. Tracing the artists’ migration from Farsi to the English language, this project critically examines how different ways of seeing and processes of creating and presenting subjectivities are produced through media and via cybernetics, under the hegemony of the English language.

The project further explores how socio-economic structures reproduce themselves through image-based platforms, and how these adhere to modes of late capitalism within contemporary life.
The artists state, “Allegorically, the term Alibaba points to two disparate subjects: the Orientalized story of Alibaba and the Forty Thieves of Baghdad, inserted by Antoine Galland into A Thousand and One Nights; and its contemporary signification, “alibaba.com”. The digital interface and the algorithmic logic of such platforms condition the contemporary Alibaba citizen’s desire to seeing, resulting in their automatic consumption through that seeing.”

In their work, Alibaba Conundrum addresses how vision and language have transformed as, during the pandemic period, the media’s polarizing enforcement of reductive language for complex issues has further deepened neoliberal subjectivities performed as instrumentalized capital.

Through installations comprising a short film, sculpture, wallpaper, and a series of printed, image-based objects, Alibaba Conundrum calls our attention to the problem of escape–how can one find an outside to the English language? Alibaba Conundrum suggests that there is no outside to the English language in contemporary life. It is a conundrum of epic proportions, which the artists demonstrate unequivocally within this project.

The Alibaba Conundrum project considers how the English language and its enduring global impact directly but quietly conditions everyday experience and how it surreptitiously shapes individual subjects and citizens by posing as the ‘norm.’

In their work Alibaba Conundrum also explores the English language as a diasporic structure. Tracing the artists’ migration from Farsi to the English language, this project critically examines how different ways of seeing and processes of creating and presenting subjectivities are produced through media and via cybernetics, under the hegemony of the English language.

The project further explores how socio-economic structures reproduce themselves through image-based platforms, and how these adhere to modes of late capitalism within contemporary life.
The artists state, “Allegorically, the term Alibaba points to two disparate subjects: the Orientalized story of Alibaba and the Forty Thieves of Baghdad, inserted by Antoine Galland into A Thousand and One Nights; and its contemporary signification, “alibaba.com”. The digital interface and the algorithmic logic of such platforms condition the contemporary Alibaba citizen’s desire to seeing, resulting in their automatic consumption through that seeing.”

In their work, Alibaba Conundrum addresses how vision and language have transformed as, during the pandemic period, the media’s polarizing enforcement of reductive language for complex issues has further deepened neoliberal subjectivities performed as instrumentalized capital.

Through installations comprising a short film, sculpture, wallpaper, and a series of printed, image-based objects, Alibaba Conundrum calls our attention to the problem of escape–how can one find an outside to the English language? Alibaba Conundrum suggests that there is no outside to the English language in contemporary life. It is a conundrum of epic proportions, which the artists demonstrate unequivocally within this project.

The Alibaba Conundrum project considers how the English language and its enduring global impact directly but quietly conditions everyday experience and how it surreptitiously shapes individual subjects and citizens by posing as the ‘norm.’

In their work Alibaba Conundrum also explores the English language as a diasporic structure. Tracing the artists’ migration from Farsi to the English language, this project critically examines how different ways of seeing and processes of creating and presenting subjectivities are produced through media and via cybernetics, under the hegemony of the English language.

The project further explores how socio-economic structures reproduce themselves through image-based platforms, and how these adhere to modes of late capitalism within contemporary life.
The artists state, “Allegorically, the term Alibaba points to two disparate subjects: the Orientalized story of Alibaba and the Forty Thieves of Baghdad, inserted by Antoine Galland into A Thousand and One Nights; and its contemporary signification, “alibaba.com”. The digital interface and the algorithmic logic of such platforms condition the contemporary Alibaba citizen’s desire to seeing, resulting in their automatic consumption through that seeing.”

In their work, Alibaba Conundrum addresses how vision and language have transformed as, during the pandemic period, the media’s polarizing enforcement of reductive language for complex issues has further deepened neoliberal subjectivities performed as instrumentalized capital.

Through installations comprising a short film, sculpture, wallpaper, and a series of printed, image-based objects, Alibaba Conundrum calls our attention to the problem of escape–how can one find an outside to the English language? Alibaba Conundrum suggests that there is no outside to the English language in contemporary life. It is a conundrum of epic proportions, which the artists demonstrate unequivocally within this project.

The Alibaba Conundrum project considers how the English language and its enduring global impact directly but quietly conditions everyday experience and how it surreptitiously shapes individual subjects and citizens by posing as the ‘norm.’

In their work Alibaba Conundrum also explores the English language as a diasporic structure. Tracing the artists’ migration from Farsi to the English language, this project critically examines how different ways of seeing and processes of creating and presenting subjectivities are produced through media and via cybernetics, under the hegemony of the English language.

The project further explores how socio-economic structures reproduce themselves through image-based platforms, and how these adhere to modes of late capitalism within contemporary life.
The artists state, “Allegorically, the term Alibaba points to two disparate subjects: the Orientalized story of Alibaba and the Forty Thieves of Baghdad, inserted by Antoine Galland into A Thousand and One Nights; and its contemporary signification, “alibaba.com”. The digital interface and the algorithmic logic of such platforms condition the contemporary Alibaba citizen’s desire to seeing, resulting in their automatic consumption through that seeing.”

In their work, Alibaba Conundrum addresses how vision and language have transformed as, during the pandemic period, the media’s polarizing enforcement of reductive language for complex issues has further deepened neoliberal subjectivities performed as instrumentalized capital.

Through installations comprising a short film, sculpture, wallpaper, and a series of printed, image-based objects, Alibaba Conundrum calls our attention to the problem of escape–how can one find an outside to the English language? Alibaba Conundrum suggests that there is no outside to the English language in contemporary life. It is a conundrum of epic proportions, which the artists demonstrate unequivocally within this project.

The Alibaba Conundrum project considers how the English language and its enduring global impact directly but quietly conditions everyday experience and how it surreptitiously shapes individual subjects and citizens by posing as the ‘norm.’

In their work Alibaba Conundrum also explores the English language as a diasporic structure. Tracing the artists’ migration from Farsi to the English language, this project critically examines how different ways of seeing and processes of creating and presenting subjectivities are produced through media and via cybernetics, under the hegemony of the English language.

The project further explores how socio-economic structures reproduce themselves through image-based platforms, and how these adhere to modes of late capitalism within contemporary life.
The artists state, “Allegorically, the term Alibaba points to two disparate subjects: the Orientalized story of Alibaba and the Forty Thieves of Baghdad, inserted by Antoine Galland into A Thousand and One Nights; and its contemporary signification, “alibaba.com”. The digital interface and the algorithmic logic of such platforms condition the contemporary Alibaba citizen’s desire to seeing, resulting in their automatic consumption through that seeing.”

In their work, Alibaba Conundrum addresses how vision and language have transformed as, during the pandemic period, the media’s polarizing enforcement of reductive language for complex issues has further deepened neoliberal subjectivities performed as instrumentalized capital.

Through installations comprising a short film, sculpture, wallpaper, and a series of printed, image-based objects, Alibaba Conundrum calls our attention to the problem of escape–how can one find an outside to the English language? Alibaba Conundrum suggests that there is no outside to the English language in contemporary life. It is a conundrum of epic proportions, which the artists demonstrate unequivocally within this project.

The Alibaba Conundrum project considers how the English language and its enduring global impact directly but quietly conditions everyday experience and how it surreptitiously shapes individual subjects and citizens by posing as the ‘norm.’

In their work Alibaba Conundrum also explores the English language as a diasporic structure. Tracing the artists’ migration from Farsi to the English language, this project critically examines how different ways of seeing and processes of creating and presenting subjectivities are produced through media and via cybernetics, under the hegemony of the English language.

The project further explores how socio-economic structures reproduce themselves through image-based platforms, and how these adhere to modes of late capitalism within contemporary life.
The artists state, “Allegorically, the term Alibaba points to two disparate subjects: the Orientalized story of Alibaba and the Forty Thieves of Baghdad, inserted by Antoine Galland into A Thousand and One Nights; and its contemporary signification, “alibaba.com”. The digital interface and the algorithmic logic of such platforms condition the contemporary Alibaba citizen’s desire to seeing, resulting in their automatic consumption through that seeing.”

In their work, Alibaba Conundrum addresses how vision and language have transformed as, during the pandemic period, the media’s polarizing enforcement of reductive language for complex issues has further deepened neoliberal subjectivities performed as instrumentalized capital.

Through installations comprising a short film, sculpture, wallpaper, and a series of printed, image-based objects, Alibaba Conundrum calls our attention to the problem of escape–how can one find an outside to the English language? Alibaba Conundrum suggests that there is no outside to the English language in contemporary life. It is a conundrum of epic proportions, which the artists demonstrate unequivocally within this project.

The Alibaba Conundrum project considers how the English language and its enduring global impact directly but quietly conditions everyday experience and how it surreptitiously shapes individual subjects and citizens by posing as the ‘norm.’

In their work Alibaba Conundrum also explores the English language as a diasporic structure. Tracing the artists’ migration from Farsi to the English language, this project critically examines how different ways of seeing and processes of creating and presenting subjectivities are produced through media and via cybernetics, under the hegemony of the English language.

The project further explores how socio-economic structures reproduce themselves through image-based platforms, and how these adhere to modes of late capitalism within contemporary life.
The artists state, “Allegorically, the term Alibaba points to two disparate subjects: the Orientalized story of Alibaba and the Forty Thieves of Baghdad, inserted by Antoine Galland into A Thousand and One Nights; and its contemporary signification, “alibaba.com”. The digital interface and the algorithmic logic of such platforms condition the contemporary Alibaba citizen’s desire to seeing, resulting in their automatic consumption through that seeing.”

In their work, Alibaba Conundrum addresses how vision and language have transformed as, during the pandemic period, the media’s polarizing enforcement of reductive language for complex issues has further deepened neoliberal subjectivities performed as instrumentalized capital.

Through installations comprising a short film, sculpture, wallpaper, and a series of printed, image-based objects, Alibaba Conundrum calls our attention to the problem of escape–how can one find an outside to the English language? Alibaba Conundrum suggests that there is no outside to the English language in contemporary life. It is a conundrum of epic proportions, which the artists demonstrate unequivocally within this project.

The Alibaba Conundrum project considers how the English language and its enduring global impact directly but quietly conditions everyday experience and how it surreptitiously shapes individual subjects and citizens by posing as the ‘norm.’

In their work Alibaba Conundrum also explores the English language as a diasporic structure. Tracing the artists’ migration from Farsi to the English language, this project critically examines how different ways of seeing and processes of creating and presenting subjectivities are produced through media and via cybernetics, under the hegemony of the English language.

The project further explores how socio-economic structures reproduce themselves through image-based platforms, and how these adhere to modes of late capitalism within contemporary life.
The artists state, “Allegorically, the term Alibaba points to two disparate subjects: the Orientalized story of Alibaba and the Forty Thieves of Baghdad, inserted by Antoine Galland into A Thousand and One Nights; and its contemporary signification, “alibaba.com”. The digital interface and the algorithmic logic of such platforms condition the contemporary Alibaba citizen’s desire to seeing, resulting in their automatic consumption through that seeing.”

In their work, Alibaba Conundrum addresses how vision and language have transformed as, during the pandemic period, the media’s polarizing enforcement of reductive language for complex issues has further deepened neoliberal subjectivities performed as instrumentalized capital.

Through installations comprising a short film, sculpture, wallpaper, and a series of printed, image-based objects, Alibaba Conundrum calls our attention to the problem of escape–how can one find an outside to the English language? Alibaba Conundrum suggests that there is no outside to the English language in contemporary life. It is a conundrum of epic proportions, which the artists demonstrate unequivocally within this project.

The Alibaba Conundrum project considers how the English language and its enduring global impact directly but quietly conditions everyday experience and how it surreptitiously shapes individual subjects and citizens by posing as the ‘norm.’

In their work Alibaba Conundrum also explores the English language as a diasporic structure. Tracing the artists’ migration from Farsi to the English language, this project critically examines how different ways of seeing and processes of creating and presenting subjectivities are produced through media and via cybernetics, under the hegemony of the English language.

The project further explores how socio-economic structures reproduce themselves through image-based platforms, and how these adhere to modes of late capitalism within contemporary life.
The artists state, “Allegorically, the term Alibaba points to two disparate subjects: the Orientalized story of Alibaba and the Forty Thieves of Baghdad, inserted by Antoine Galland into A Thousand and One Nights; and its contemporary signification, “alibaba.com”. The digital interface and the algorithmic logic of such platforms condition the contemporary Alibaba citizen’s desire to seeing, resulting in their automatic consumption through that seeing.”

In their work, Alibaba Conundrum addresses how vision and language have transformed as, during the pandemic period, the media’s polarizing enforcement of reductive language for complex issues has further deepened neoliberal subjectivities performed as instrumentalized capital.

Through installations comprising a short film, sculpture, wallpaper, and a series of printed, image-based objects, Alibaba Conundrum calls our attention to the problem of escape–how can one find an outside to the English language? Alibaba Conundrum suggests that there is no outside to the English language in contemporary life. It is a conundrum of epic proportions, which the artists demonstrate unequivocally within this project.

The Alibaba Conundrum project considers how the English language and its enduring global impact directly but quietly conditions everyday experience and how it surreptitiously shapes individual subjects and citizens by posing as the ‘norm.’

In their work Alibaba Conundrum also explores the English language as a diasporic structure. Tracing the artists’ migration from Farsi to the English language, this project critically examines how different ways of seeing and processes of creating and presenting subjectivities are produced through media and via cybernetics, under the hegemony of the English language.

The project further explores how socio-economic structures reproduce themselves through image-based platforms, and how these adhere to modes of late capitalism within contemporary life.
The artists state, “Allegorically, the term Alibaba points to two disparate subjects: the Orientalized story of Alibaba and the Forty Thieves of Baghdad, inserted by Antoine Galland into A Thousand and One Nights; and its contemporary signification, “alibaba.com”. The digital interface and the algorithmic logic of such platforms condition the contemporary Alibaba citizen’s desire to seeing, resulting in their automatic consumption through that seeing.”

In their work, Alibaba Conundrum addresses how vision and language have transformed as, during the pandemic period, the media’s polarizing enforcement of reductive language for complex issues has further deepened neoliberal subjectivities performed as instrumentalized capital.

Through installations comprising a short film, sculpture, wallpaper, and a series of printed, image-based objects, Alibaba Conundrum calls our attention to the problem of escape–how can one find an outside to the English language? Alibaba Conundrum suggests that there is no outside to the English language in contemporary life. It is a conundrum of epic proportions, which the artists demonstrate unequivocally within this project.

The Alibaba Conundrum project considers how the English language and its enduring global impact directly but quietly conditions everyday experience and how it surreptitiously shapes individual subjects and citizens by posing as the ‘norm.’

In their work Alibaba Conundrum also explores the English language as a diasporic structure. Tracing the artists’ migration from Farsi to the English language, this project critically examines how different ways of seeing and processes of creating and presenting subjectivities are produced through media and via cybernetics, under the hegemony of the English language.

The project further explores how socio-economic structures reproduce themselves through image-based platforms, and how these adhere to modes of late capitalism within contemporary life.
The artists state, “Allegorically, the term Alibaba points to two disparate subjects: the Orientalized story of Alibaba and the Forty Thieves of Baghdad, inserted by Antoine Galland into A Thousand and One Nights; and its contemporary signification, “alibaba.com”. The digital interface and the algorithmic logic of such platforms condition the contemporary Alibaba citizen’s desire to seeing, resulting in their automatic consumption through that seeing.”

In their work, Alibaba Conundrum addresses how vision and language have transformed as, during the pandemic period, the media’s polarizing enforcement of reductive language for complex issues has further deepened neoliberal subjectivities performed as instrumentalized capital.

Through installations comprising a short film, sculpture, wallpaper, and a series of printed, image-based objects, Alibaba Conundrum calls our attention to the problem of escape–how can one find an outside to the English language? Alibaba Conundrum suggests that there is no outside to the English language in contemporary life. It is a conundrum of epic proportions, which the artists demonstrate unequivocally within this project.

The Alibaba Conundrum project considers how the English language and its enduring global impact directly but quietly conditions everyday experience and how it surreptitiously shapes individual subjects and citizens by posing as the ‘norm.’

In their work Alibaba Conundrum also explores the English language as a diasporic structure. Tracing the artists’ migration from Farsi to the English language, this project critically examines how different ways of seeing and processes of creating and presenting subjectivities are produced through media and via cybernetics, under the hegemony of the English language.

The project further explores how socio-economic structures reproduce themselves through image-based platforms, and how these adhere to modes of late capitalism within contemporary life.
The artists state, “Allegorically, the term Alibaba points to two disparate subjects: the Orientalized story of Alibaba and the Forty Thieves of Baghdad, inserted by Antoine Galland into A Thousand and One Nights; and its contemporary signification, “alibaba.com”. The digital interface and the algorithmic logic of such platforms condition the contemporary Alibaba citizen’s desire to seeing, resulting in their automatic consumption through that seeing.”

In their work, Alibaba Conundrum addresses how vision and language have transformed as, during the pandemic period, the media’s polarizing enforcement of reductive language for complex issues has further deepened neoliberal subjectivities performed as instrumentalized capital.

Through installations comprising a short film, sculpture, wallpaper, and a series of printed, image-based objects, Alibaba Conundrum calls our attention to the problem of escape–how can one find an outside to the English language? Alibaba Conundrum suggests that there is no outside to the English language in contemporary life. It is a conundrum of epic proportions, which the artists demonstrate unequivocally within this project.

The Alibaba Conundrum project considers how the English language and its enduring global impact directly but quietly conditions everyday experience and how it surreptitiously shapes individual subjects and citizens by posing as the ‘norm.’

In their work Alibaba Conundrum also explores the English language as a diasporic structure. Tracing the artists’ migration from Farsi to the English language, this project critically examines how different ways of seeing and processes of creating and presenting subjectivities are produced through media and via cybernetics, under the hegemony of the English language.

The project further explores how socio-economic structures reproduce themselves through image-based platforms, and how these adhere to modes of late capitalism within contemporary life.
The artists state, “Allegorically, the term Alibaba points to two disparate subjects: the Orientalized story of Alibaba and the Forty Thieves of Baghdad, inserted by Antoine Galland into A Thousand and One Nights; and its contemporary signification, “alibaba.com”. The digital interface and the algorithmic logic of such platforms condition the contemporary Alibaba citizen’s desire to seeing, resulting in their automatic consumption through that seeing.”

In their work, Alibaba Conundrum addresses how vision and language have transformed as, during the pandemic period, the media’s polarizing enforcement of reductive language for complex issues has further deepened neoliberal subjectivities performed as instrumentalized capital.

Through installations comprising a short film, sculpture, wallpaper, and a series of printed, image-based objects, Alibaba Conundrum calls our attention to the problem of escape–how can one find an outside to the English language? Alibaba Conundrum suggests that there is no outside to the English language in contemporary life. It is a conundrum of epic proportions, which the artists demonstrate unequivocally within this project.

The Alibaba Conundrum project considers how the English language and its enduring global impact directly but quietly conditions everyday experience and how it surreptitiously shapes individual subjects and citizens by posing as the ‘norm.’

In their work Alibaba Conundrum also explores the English language as a diasporic structure. Tracing the artists’ migration from Farsi to the English language, this project critically examines how different ways of seeing and processes of creating and presenting subjectivities are produced through media and via cybernetics, under the hegemony of the English language.

The project further explores how socio-economic structures reproduce themselves through image-based platforms, and how these adhere to modes of late capitalism within contemporary life.
The artists state, “Allegorically, the term Alibaba points to two disparate subjects: the Orientalized story of Alibaba and the Forty Thieves of Baghdad, inserted by Antoine Galland into A Thousand and One Nights; and its contemporary signification, “alibaba.com”. The digital interface and the algorithmic logic of such platforms condition the contemporary Alibaba citizen’s desire to seeing, resulting in their automatic consumption through that seeing.”

In their work, Alibaba Conundrum addresses how vision and language have transformed as, during the pandemic period, the media’s polarizing enforcement of reductive language for complex issues has further deepened neoliberal subjectivities performed as instrumentalized capital.

Through installations comprising a short film, sculpture, wallpaper, and a series of printed, image-based objects, Alibaba Conundrum calls our attention to the problem of escape–how can one find an outside to the English language? Alibaba Conundrum suggests that there is no outside to the English language in contemporary life. It is a conundrum of epic proportions, which the artists demonstrate unequivocally within this project.