hiba ali

warming the tones of our heart and spirit (2022)

Location: Outside Dundas West Subway Station

In warming the tones of our heart and spirit, we are greeted with the roots of three tropical herbs that hiba has been practising with. Ashwagandha, turmeric and cloves are used in food and for healing, calming and hygiene across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America. Due to the capital-colonial global supply chains, we might best know these herbs through their powders or fruit. Here in this AR experience, hiba, introduces us to their roots. Tuning to the body, warming the tones of our heart and spirit invites us to touch the roots of the three herbs, breathe through a guided-rooted meditation developed for the Hypercity app, and embody the power of deep breath.

Accompanying this project, Hiba is offering free warming tea packets. These packets will be available at Xpace Cultural Centre (303 Lansdowne Ave, Toronto) from January 13 - March 18 while quantities last.

hiba ali is a producer of moving images, sounds, garments and words. they reside in many time zones: toronto, chicago and eugene. born in karachi, pakistan, they belong to east african, south asian and arab diasporas. they are a practitioner and (re)learner of swahili, urdu, arabic and spanish languages. they work on two long term art and publication projects: the first being an art-based phd project that examines womyn of colour’s labour, and architecture of surveillance as it exists within the monopoly of amazon (corp.) and the second being a series of works that addresses music, cloth and ritual practices that connect east africa, south asia and the arabian peninsula in the swahili-indian ocean region.

they are an assistant professor at the college of design in the art & technology program at the university of oregon in eugene and they teach on decolonial, feminist, anti-racist frameworks in digital art pedagogies. currently, they are a phd candidate in cultural studies at queens university in kingston, ontario. their work has been presented in chicago, stockholm, vienna, berlin, toronto, new york, istanbul, são paulo, detroit, windsor, dubai, austin, vancouver, and portland. they have written for c magazine, the seen, newcity chicago, art chicago, art dubai, the state, medium’s zora, rtv, and topical cream.