Maryam Monalisa Gharavi

is an artist, poet, and cultural technologist whose work explores the interplay between aesthetic and political valences in the public domain. Solo/group exhibitions, performances, and expanded publications include Nottingham Contemporary, Pioneer Works, Parasol Unit, Serpentine Cinema, Framer Framed, Townhouse Gallery of Contemporary Art, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Art Dubai, New Museum, Pacific Film Archive, Sonic Acts, Triple Canopy, Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, The Poetry Project, Women and Performance, The White Review, Art in America, The Literary Review, Asymptote, Circumference, Brooklyn Public Library, among others. She has served as artist-in-residence at Trélex Poetry Residency (France), Sonic Acts (Netherlands), Residency Unlimited (U.S.A.), Wysing Arts Centre (U.K), Industry Lab (U.S.A.), Delfina Foundation (U.K.), Darat al Funun (Jordan), among others. She completed a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Film & Visual Studies at Harvard University and an M.F.A. in Film/Video at Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College, and held a postdoctoral Fulbright and Visiting Professorship at Birzeit University. She was a Lecturer at New York University and Northeastern University from 2019 to 2021; at Harvard University from 2012 to 2017; and has served as visiting faculty/studio artist at Valand Academy, Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University, Bard Microcollege, among others. Book publications include a translation of Waly Salomão’s Algaravias: Echo Chamber (Ugly Duckling Presse), nominated for a PEN Award for Poetry in Translation; The Distancing Effect (BlazeVOX); and Bio (Inventory Press). Artist books include Apparent Horizon 2 (Bonington Gallery); Alphabet of an Unknown City (Belladonna*), Secret Catalan Poem (The Elephants), Mohammad Wikipedia Book (Recess), Dictionary of Night, co-authored with Mirene Arsanios (Ashkal Alwan), and Oil News 1989-2020, co-authored with Sam Lavigne (Sonic Acts). Her translation of Salomão’s Border Fare is forthcoming in 2024 (World Poetry Books). She is Editor Emeritus of The New Inquiry, where she previously served as Editor-at-Large. She founded South/South, cited as "one to watch" by the Los Angeles Times, and authored 500+ posts independently between 2009-2012 and at TNI between 2012-2023. She is the founder and principal of Oil Research Group (ORG), a one-woman collective exploring coterminous oil and data environments at the heart of "data is the new oil." ORG regularly collaborates with artists, scientists, economists, indigenous environmentalists, and host art institutions. She lives and works in New York.

South/South

The Labor of Performance (Part One)

By Maryam Monalisa GharaviDecember 25, 2014

By gazing intently at the utter mundaneness of a person at work, the film denaturalizes their labor.

South/South

Against Nepenthe

By Maryam Monalisa GharaviDecember 24, 2014

The landlady brought news of your death

South/South

Transcript on a Face

By Maryam Monalisa GharaviNovember 25, 2014

Wilson the innocent ghost, Brown the guilty demon

South/South

Septuplus

By Maryam Monalisa GharaviNovember 10, 2014

Littera canina, Red alert of Rs retroflexed on tongues. Rhotic growl of propelled bullets, chirruped from a rocket.

South/South

Interview in Ibraaz

By Maryam Monalisa GharaviNovember 7, 2014

The spirit of address is solidarity or speaking nearby and never for

South/South

How Can We Stop Cops From Beating and Killing

By Maryam Monalisa GharaviOctober 9, 2014

No cop > meta-cop

South/South

The Killing Class

By Maryam Monalisa GharaviSeptember 29, 2014

To order spatial operations, to command bodies, to keep things moving along, to kill with impunity

South/South

A Translation of Waly Salomão's "Jet-Lagged Poem"

By Maryam Monalisa GharaviJuly 26, 2014

Is it day? Is it morning? Is it evening? Is it night? Sleeping? Awaking? Somnambulent?

South/South

Wall of Names

By Maryam Monalisa GharaviJuly 18, 2014

The list of names grows before cartridge ink has dried on the page

South/South

Inessential No. 3

By Maryam Monalisa GharaviJuly 13, 2014

When emergency is normalized

South/South

Canceled Message (Part Two)

By Maryam Monalisa GharaviJune 30, 2014

Changing color in a dark, oceanic cave, like a private amphibian

South/South

Canceled Message (Part One)

By Maryam Monalisa GharaviJune 25, 2014

Self-erasure, deletion, and effacement.

South/South

The Inner Qualities of Darkness

By Maryam Monalisa GharaviMay 30, 2014

To struggle with one’s blurred vision as you leave the comfort of a lit place for a sea-like unknown is both the great fear and the great imperative.

South/South

Austerity Abécédaire

By Maryam Monalisa GharaviApril 9, 2014

scarcity | fr. austeros (gr.) | bitter, harsh, makes the tongue dry

South/South

The Thick Blue Line

By Maryam Monalisa GharaviMarch 14, 2014

No charges against police officer. No charges against police officer. No charges against police officer.

South/South

they built for eternity

By Maryam Monalisa GharaviMarch 6, 2014

Yesteryear's avowed goodness of firms with "special" relationships to Anglo-America parallels with today's avowed goodness of institutions with "special" relationships to art