Towner Eastbourne
Capture
Emii Alrai is an artist, writer and former museum registrar who lives and works between Leeds and London. Working primarily in sculpture and installation, Alrai’s practice explores Middle Eastern mythologies, archaeology and Western museum structures.
Alrai uses a range of materials to create ruins and artefacts reminiscent of ancient civilisations. The weatherworn texture of eroded pillars and archways that she creates resemble stonework and structures uncovered at archaeological sites such as Pompeii in Italy or Jerash in Jordan. These large-scale ruins are fabrications, built in her studio, assembled in the gallery and furnished with earthenware pots, metal arrows, hand blown glass vessels – false artefacts made by the artist.
Through this work, Alrai engages critically with a Western tradition of museum display that prioritises the object. She invites us to think about collections, the origins of excavated artefacts and their close alignment with the reach of colonial empires.
Towner Eastbourne
Devonshire Park
College Road
Eastbourne
BN21 4JJ
Dates
26 July – 2 November 2025
About the Artist
Emii Alrai lives and works in the UK. Solo exhibitions include Capture, The Towner Eastbourne, 2025; River of Black Stone, Compton Verney, UK, 2025; A Lake as Great as its Bones, Maximillian William, London, UK, 2024; Lithics, Quench Gallery, Margate, UK, 2024; A Core of Scar, The Hepworth Wakefield & iniva, Wakefield, UK, 2022; and Reverse Defence, Workplace Foundation, Newcastle, UK, 2022.Previous group exhibitions include Fragment & Form, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds 2025, Déjà Vu, Bold Tendencies, London, 2025, Ceramics Friends: 5th Virginia McClure Ceramic Biennale, McClure Gallery, Montréal, Canada 2024; A Permanent Departure for Nostalgia, A Rehearsal on Legacy with Zaha Hadid, Contemporary Arts Centre, Cincinnati, USA, 2023; and And the Mirrors are Many, Warehouse 421, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 2022.Alrai is the 2025 recipient of the Assetto Fellowship at the Warburg Institute and was artist-in-residence at Wysing Arts Centre, UK, 2024. She has undertaken residencies at the Villa Medici, Rome, Italy, 2023; Launchpad LaB, France, 2023; and Triangle Astérides, Marseille, France, 2021.
