Conceptual artist Francis Alÿs brings a distinct poetic and imaginative sensibility to observations of, and engagements with, both everyday life and politicized situations. In Alÿs's wide range of projects and interventions, he has taken a roundabout trip threading the United States-Mexico border—traveling from Tijuana to Australia, up the Pacific Rim to Alaska, and finally to California—to highlight the increasing obstacles imposed along the border (The Loop, 1997); pushed a melting block of ice through city streets (Paradox of Practice 1 (Sometimes Doing Something Leads to Nothing), 1997); hired sign painters to make copies of his works (Untitled (Sign Painting Project), 1993-1997); filmed an attempt to enter the center of a tornado (Tornado, 2000-2010); trailed a leaking can of paint along the Israel-Palestine border (The Green Line (Sometimes doing something poetic can become political and sometimes doing something political can become poetic), 2005); and orchestrated hundreds of volunteers to move a sand dune (When Faith Moves Mountains, 2002).
Conceptual artist Francis Alÿs brings a distinct poetic and imaginative sensibility to observations of, and engagements with, both everyday life and politicized situations. In Alÿs's wide range of projects and interventions, he has taken a roundabout trip threading the United States-Mexico border—traveling from Tijuana to Australia, up the Pacific Rim to Alaska, and finally to California—to highlight the increasing obstacles imposed along the border (The Loop, 1997); pushed a melting block of ice through city streets (Paradox of Practice 1 (Sometimes Doing Something Leads to Nothing), 1997); hired sign painters to make copies of his works (Untitled (Sign Painting Project), 1993-1997); filmed an attempt to enter the center of a tornado (Tornado, 2000-2010); trailed a leaking can of paint along the Israel-Palestine border (The Green Line (Sometimes doing something poetic can become political and sometimes doing something political can become poetic), 2005); and orchestrated hundreds of volunteers to move a sand dune (When Faith Moves Mountains, 2002).
