Zineb Sedira

Biographical details:

Zineb Sedira was born in France of Algerian parents, and studied art in London. She completed her undergraduate and postgraduate studies at Central St Martin's School of Art and the Slade School of Art, followed by a research fellowship at the Royal College of Art between 1998-2003.

Sedira first came to prominence in the late 1990s for her provocative re-imaginings of traditional Islamic textile and tile patterns. Her photographs and video works use the intimate perspective of her own experience to frame questions about the intersections of Eastern and Western culture and identity. Her work has been exhibited widely, from the 49th Venice Biennale to solo shows at the Cornerhouse, Manchester; the Photographers Gallery, London and the Centre Culturel Français, Algiers. She lives and works in London.

How to negotiate different worlds is the overriding question in Zineb Sedira's work, worlds that collide or concord. It is precisely her Algerian heritage and her experience of living in London and France that gives Zineb's work insight into these different worlds. The work shifts from the political to the emotional; from a sense of history to the present; from East to West and through them both.
Rachel Garfield
www.sonicgenes.co.uk/zineb/index.html