Emii Alrai is an artist whose practice is informed by history, geography, mythologies and inherited nostalgia. Her work criticises Western museological structure and the complexity of ruins, rooted in her own identity growing up in an Iraqi family in Britain. Her installations often mimic museum displays. Alrai explores how the body is situated against the rigidity of history to interrogate how collections and dioramas reinforce systems of empire. Alrai’s work posits the viewer as an intruder, hunter or voyeur. The form of Coude (2022) is punctured by arrows and is on a platform that appears to be crumbling. The theatrical nature of this presentation gives the sculpture an energy of performance. Each time Coude is displayed, it will be slightly different, due to its ephemeral material quality. This is a rebellion against the impossible conservator’s dream of perfect preservation. Three accompanying drawings – Flail, Croucher and Tempest Walker – show Alrai’s exploration of forms, blurring the space between human, animal and landscape.
