ALI HOBBS

Grounded in observation, immersion, and physical process, Ali’s practice uses material and moving image as a way of working ideas through lived experience.

Emerging through extended acts of making rather than pre-defined outcomes Ali’s early work included abstract animations projected across the electric windows of Lux Gallery and into Hoxton Square, London.

This enquiry developed into The Long Walk, a seven-and-a-half-hour installation filmed in the Nuba Mountains, Sudan. Conceived through bodily immersion rather than observation, the work retains the full duration of the walk, allowing time, landscape, and physical limits to shape the piece. It has been exhibited internationally in public spaces including Trafalgar Square, The Eden Project, Glastonbury Festival, and in the US at Grand Central Station, Union Station, and the Cathedral of St John the Divine.

In 2007 Ali made 30-minute film To Begin, filmed in Southern Ethiopia, which centers on women’s voices, the physical rhythms of labour, and shared presence. The work was exhibited on large outdoor screens across five UK cities - simultaneously.

Alongside her own work, Ali has undertaken short film commissions, including films in collaboration with other artists to translate and extend their practices. These works sit between documentation and interpretation, retaining her focus on presence and lived experience while responding to the distinct language of each artist.

Ali also brings over 20 years’ experience in documentary and factual broadcast television, delivering hundreds of hours of content for BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, Sky, Discovery, and National Geographic. She is currently Joint Head of Production at Candour Productions.

Passionate about widening access to the industry, Ali is an industry mentor and regularly speaks at local schools and colleges. She has taught at Bedford College of Art, Leeds Beckett University, and Leeds Trinity University.