MADRUGADAPhoto Series
20256 Artworks

The Spanish word madrugada is a cultural construct, a word that doesn’t easily translate into other languages. Its very meaning is abstract, a measurement of time somewhere between the end of light and the beginning, between dusk and dawn, or more specifically between midnight and daybreak. Though distinct in meaning, the word brings to mind certain English expressions— the ‘witching hour’, the ‘magic hour’—moments of changed perspective, of awakening possibility.

There is much beauty to be found in the nighttime hours, when silence allows our senses to revel in subtle detail. The inspiration for this series evolved in New Orleans, during Covid, when Alia Ali would work in the dark, surrounded by flowers. We all remember the solitude of that time, crushing in the light of day, but strangely comforting at night. Sharing one’s solitude with the secrets of deep darkness, with invisible animals and night blooming plants, amid the scent of jasmine.

As a photographer, she is sensitive to all forms of light: sunlight, daylight, twilight, moonlight. Madrugada is about the perception of light in all forms, particularly at night. When dimness settles and the things that go unseen during the daytime become seen, especially when illuminated by moonlight.

There is the night, and there is the cycle of the moon. The rotation of a full moon to a new moon. When the moon is new nothing is visible, only things that glow, like fireflies, or scorpions.

And when the moon is full, it is bright as day, and everything is illuminated. The space and time between new moon and full moon is magical, as light lifts up and dims down.

The MADRUGADA series comprises five images: Dim, flanked by Dawn and Dusk, are single portraits, while Madrugada portrays two siblings, grouped together as if in a family portrait. The final pair of images are Midnight and Twilight, in which each sibling stands alone.

Florals emerge from the darkness, each bloom vivid against the black ground, pattern on pattern saturating the senses. Body volumes perform against walls of pattern, which evolve into a two-dimensional studio setting of Madrugada. In certain works, the volumes dissolve into the ground, emerging here and there in an abstraction of light. Dim is clearly visible: head, body, arms; yet Dawn is hidden amongst the blooms that cover them. A nocturnal parade that tunes our senses to hear the sounds of the night garden as we move in and out of the shadows.