In Conversation with Jayden Ali

I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with architect, artist and Director of JA Projects, Jayden Ali, for Off The Record, organised by ArtReview, Ursula and Hauser & Wirth. We arrived without prepared questions, choosing instead to meet one another with curiosity and an openness to share the ideas that shape our respective practices.

Having long admired Jayden's work, particularly his contribution to V&A East, I began with a simple question:

"Why architecture?"

What followed was a generous conversation about personal histories, community, making work that resonates with others, the vulnerability that creative practice often demands, and the importance of collaboration across disciplines.

Although our practices differ in medium, we found ourselves returning to many of the same questions: how spaces and objects carry meaning, how identity informs making, and how creativity can become a way of understanding ourselves and the world around us.

By the end, it felt as though we had only just begun.

My thanks to Jayden, Sarah Douglas, Ursula, ArtReview and the team at Hauser & Wirth for bringing together such a thoughtful evening, and to everyone who joined us.