Anida Yoeu Ali The Red Chador: Becoming Rogue, 2025
Participatory Performance & Installation
Variable dimensions
Presented by Warin Lab Contemporary
Internationally acclaimed artist, Anida Yoeu Ali, presents The Red Chador: Becoming Rogue as a new experiential work that relies on the public’s participation.
Created a decade ago in Paris during heightened Islamophobia, Ali’s emblematic figure dons a chador, a garment that covers the head and body worn by some Muslim women. After performances in 15 cities across 7 countries, Ali’s latest iteration comes home to the Pacific Northwest where Ali transforms a section of the Seattle Art Fair into a fashion boutique, offering the public a chance to peek into The Red Chador’s luxurious walk-in closet and to become part of the performance. Ali’s provocation through this work invites visitors to try the chador on for size and become a “covered” cover girl for Rogue magazine. Originally presented at Warin Lab Contemporary (Bangkok, Thailand) in February 2025, The Red Chador: Becoming Rogue offers visitors a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to don a uniquely made Muslim article of clothing seldom afforded to non-religious audiences. Visitors are given the chance to choose from a rack of originally tailored chador garments made from an eclectic range of textiles sourced from the open-air markets of Phnom Penh and Bangkok. The public is encouraged to rummage through a giant rack of textiles and then perform by wearing a chador of their choice. Participants can then walk the space, strike a pose and take a photograph of themselves in any of the ‘fabulous’ chadors using the bespoke selfie booth. Ali hopes that participants will suspend their judgments, preconceived ideas, stereotypes and hesitations while wearing these garments. A selection of these photographs will gradually appear in the space, culminating in 99 images, an auspicious Islamic number that refers to the 99 names of Allah (God). Videos, photographs, neon signs, and the original Red Chador outfit from the collection will also be on view.
Anida Yoeu Ali (b.1974, Cambodia) is an interdisciplinary artist whose works span performance, installation, new media, public encounters, and political agitation. Raised in Chicago and born in Cambodia, she is a woman of mixed heritage with Malay, Cham, Khmer and Thai ancestry. Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach to artmaking, her installation and performance works investigate the artistic, spiritual and political collisions of a hybrid transnational identity. Ali is the winner of the 2024 Arts Innovator Award and the 2014-2015 Sovereign Asian Art Prize for her series The Buddhist Bug, a multi-disciplinary and internationally recognized work that investigates displacement and identity through humor, absurdity and performance. Her newest performance series “The Red Chador” embodies how the mere existence of a Muslim woman can be misinterpreted in an era of heightened Islamophobia.
Ali has performed and exhibited at the Haus der Kunst, Palais de Tokyo, Musée d’art Contemporain Lyon, Jogja National Museum, Malay Heritage Centre, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, The Smithsonian, and the Seattle Asian Art Museum. Her artistic works have been the recipient of grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation, the National Endowment of the Arts and the Art Matters Foundation. Ali’s pioneering poetry work with the critically acclaimed performance group I Was Born With Two Tongues (1998-2003) is archived with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program. Currently based in Tacoma, Ali is also the co-founder of Studio Revolt, an award-winning independent artist-run media lab.
Ali holds an MFA from School of the Art Institute Chicago (2010) and a BFA from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (1998). Ali currently serves as a senior Artist-in-Residence at the University of Washington, Bothell where she teaches courses in Interdisciplinary Arts, Global Studies and Performance. She spends her time traveling and making art between the Asia-Pacific region and the US. www.anidaali.com