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Ali Aschman

MA work

Shadow Passage

A stop-motion film with a poetic, dream-like narrative about a woman exploring her own psyche through its manifestation in a sequence of identical, yet progressively smaller, rooms inhabited by multiple selves.

Info

  • MA Degree

    School

    School of Communication

    Programme

    MA Animation, 2019

    Specialism

    animation--narrative-animation-pathway

  • I construct poetic narratives and psychological self-portraits in the form of drawing, sculpture, installation and animated short films.

    My recent work is an exploration of liminal objects, such as curtains, doors and walls, in relation to ideas of the self. These permeable membranes separate the real from the fictional, the internal from the external.

    Fragmentation of the body is a recurring motif. Clay and paper figures crack and disintegrate; material embraces its inherent fragility, resulting in a self-driven collapse. The puppet body is a temporal and decaying thing, both stubbornly inanimate and uncannily human.

  • Degrees

  • BA Fine Art, Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, South Africa, 2012; MFA Studio Art, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA 2013
  • Exhibitions

  • The Sea: Our Other World, RCA Courtyard Galleries, London, 2018; RAW NIGHT, The Condo Association, Chicago, 2017; Ali Aschman and Emma Robbins, Roots & Culture Contemporary Art Center, Chicago, 2016; Unnatural Growth, Dittmar Gallery, Northwestern University, Evanston, USA, 2016; Secular Studies, Chicago Artists’ Coalition, Chicago, 2016; Front and Center, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, 2015; Dicker, Lurk and Skew, Chicago Artists Coalition, Chicago, 2015; The Wrong Story, Spudnik Press Cooperative, Chicago, 2014; Home Before Dark, King Art Collective, Chicago, 2013; Aux Follies, IN RIVERS, New York, 2011; Desert Island, Space 1026, Philadelphia, USA, 2011; THE MERZBUSH, Norte Maar, New York, 2010; Housebroken, Flux Factory, Long Island City, USA, 2010; Crocodile Tears, Parlour, New York, 2009; The Moonlight Wisteria, Whatiftheworld, Cape Town, South Africa,2007
  • Awards

  • British Animation Film Festival, Best Sound Design, 2019; Shnit Worldwide Film Festival, Made in South Africa Jury Award, 2018; SENE Film, Music & Arts Festival, Best Animated Film, 2017; Luminarts Cultural Foundation, Visual Arts Fellowship, 2014; Embarras Valley Film Festival Student-Produced Short Film Contest, 2014; Milwaukee Underground Film Festival, Best Animation, 2014; Athens International Film and Video Festival, animation category honourable mention, 2014