Projects 75: Laylah Ali

May 14, 2002–May 21, 2002

For Projects 75, artist Laylah Ali has created her first artist/comic book, composed entirely of her trademark figures. Borrowing heavily from the traditional comic book in form, Ali's project departs completely from the genre in content. Stock characters, among them soldiers, ecumenical figures, prisoners and police; doctors and patients, slaves and masters, are separated into panels that normally permit an orderly progression of story. Her substantial themes: individual and group identity, politics and power, race and class, all served up as disarmingly naïve fare, the effect of which is to replace the viewer's initial amusement with shock as the scene is slowly digested.

Organized by Kristin Helmick-Brunet, Assistant Curator, Department of Drawings. Projects 75: Laylah Ali is available for $2.00 at The MoMA stores. The Projects series is sponsored by Peter Norton.