Ali’s work merges research in archival processes, photography, and audiovisual installation to explore issues of cultural identity and the history embedded within her social environment, as expressed through photography. Through her art, she invites viewers into a broad intercultural dialogue.
In 2019, Ali embarked on her first archival project using a collection of photographs from her maternal family, originally from northern Canada. This project, which involved reprinting the images on handmade Japanese paper using the photogravure technique, sparked her interest in reinterpreting stories. From that point onward, she dedicated her practice to the exploration of photographic archives. Her connection to the world of images began in childhood, as she grew up surrounded by the work of her father, Mexican photographer José Ángel Rodríguez. With the knowledge that her father’s extensive archive will one day be passed down to her, Ali began the meticulous work of digitizing, cataloging, and preserving his collection. Together, they collaborate to examine and imagine new ways of interpreting the stories within his photographs.
Ali holds a degree in visual arts from Concordia University in Montreal. Currently based in Sudbury, Ontario, she frequently travels to San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, where she continues to work on preserving her father’s archive and developing creative projects inspired by this work. She also collaborates with the Bats’i Lab project, through which she helped curate Chiapas and Mexico: 30 Years After the EZLN Uprising. This project has been exhibited at San Ildefonso College in Mexico City, the Espacio Mexico of the Cultural Institute of Mexico in Montreal, and La Enseñanza, Casa de la Ciudad, in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas. These collective experiences have inspired Ali to continue developing a critical artistic language through art and imagery.
