Travel and movement is at the heart of Layla’s work, which often investigates how architecture, space and the city can be subverted, re-claimed and re-imagined. Her work explores how contemporary navigational, tracking or surveillance technologies such as GPS, drones, geo-location, webcams, and infra-red might be appropriated to unveil our environment, reflect our journeys through it and encourage new interactions with it. She pushes the limitations of these technologies, exploring how they might be hijacked and used as tools for drawing whilst challenging us to reflect on our own role in defining the spaces we occupy.
A well-established artist in her own right, Layla’s practice has taken her across the globe. She has undertaken residencies in Antarctica and Japan and travelled to the Borneo rainforest to make her film Tong Tana, while living with nomadic hunter-gatherers. Her work is exhibitied internationally to great acclaim, including exhibitions at Pavilhão Lucas Nogueira Garcez-Oca, São Paulo, Brazil and Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal, Canada. It features in prestigious collections from the Tate Collection (UK) to the World Bank Collection (USA).
She has undertaken a number of commissions over the years, working with Film and Video Umbrella, Art on the Underground, Westminster City Council, and Turner Contemporary. We’re delighted to add Great North Run Culture to this list.
