Painter and animator Tala Madani, whose work often probes power dynamics, gender stereotypes, and cultural conditioning, joins us to present a selection of her animations made between 2007 to the present. Simultaneously provocative, humorous, and disturbing, her shorts cycle through moments of hope and abjection, underscoring existential and absurdist themes.
Madani frequently draws on the language of cinema: Her film Shitmom Learning How to Walk (2025) directly references Edweard Muybridge’s The Horse in Motion (1878), often hailed as a precursor to cinema. Elsewhere, her work echoes cinematic tropes of slapstick, or employs the visuals of cinematic devices, as when a projector beam reflects the mind’s eye. The animations presented in this program center on two recurring archetypes: a bald, middle-aged man who faces humiliating and violent setbacks, and the figure Madani has described as “Shitmom.” The program concludes with a work in progress, tentatively titled Alphabet City, which contemplates structural violence and the forms it takes in everyday human behavior.
The screening will be followed by a conversation between Madani and May Makki, Associate Curator at Storefront for Art and Architecture and co-curator of the 2026 Diriyah Contemporary Biennale.
Chit Chat. 2007. 3 min.
Head Bug. 2009. 1 min.
Music Man. 2009. 1:30 min
Metro. 2009. 30 sec.
The Womb. 2019. 3:30 min.
Sex Ed by God. 2017. 2 min
The Crowd. 2018. 1 min.
Overhead Projection (Crowd). 2018. 1 min 36 sec
Plane Chaser. 2018. 42 sec.
Overhead projection (Dig). 2018. 1 min.
Manual Man. 2019. 10 min.
Shitmom Animation. 2021. 8 min.
Shitmom Learning to Walk. 2025. 4 min
Alphabet City. (2026, work in progress) 15 min.
Program approx. 52 mins.