In our fast-paced smartphone-dependent lives, New York-based artist Aylin Alakbarli offers a compelling counterpoint: a practice rooted in slowness, presence and emotional connection.
With a unique background that blends scientific precision, initially trained as a Geophysical Engineer at the French-Azerbaijani University, with artistic intuition from her MFA in Graphic Design at Yale School of Art, Alakbarli brings a rare cross-disciplinary fluency to her multi-faceted work. While her practice spans design, animation, and visual systems, it is her moving-image art that truly captures her distinctive vision, earning her international acclaim and exhibitions at prestigious venues, from Azerbaijan’s 15th-century Palace of Shirvanshahlar to a billboard in Times Square.
Alakbarli’s practice underscores a vital truth: in a digital landscape often defined by speed and sharp edges, her moving-image artwork invites viewers to pause, observe and truly feel.
For Alakbarli, moving-image work is the most complete artistic language, an immersive medium where image, sound, rhythm, gesture, and time converge. “I’m interested in emotions and atmospheres that cannot fully exist in a static image alone,” she explains. “A small gesture, a pause, or the pacing between scenes can completely change meaning.”
Her pieces often delve into themes of memory, identity, language, and emotional distance, finding that movement and time allow for a more visceral exploration. This approach naturally unifies her diverse skills, creating experiences that feel both intimate and expansive, unfolding gradually rather than demanding instant gratification.
Movement is not merely a tool but a core philosophy in Alakbarli’s motion-based artwork, like in pieces Far Nearer, Figures for Marimba, and Metamorphosis. She views the body as a profound carrier of memory and emotion, where subtle gestures and repetitive actions often communicate more honestly than spoken language.
“A movement as small as untying a braid or turning away from the camera can express vulnerability, tension, intimacy, or transformation,” she notes, drawing on her extensive background in animation and visual composition. “I focus on the space between control and instinct to transform movement into its own powerful visual language.”
Alakbarli’s artistic lineage is rich, acknowledging the groundbreaking contributions of pioneers like Nam June Paik, who “approached technology as something emotional, playful, and deeply human.” She admires Paik’s interdisciplinary spirit, while also drawing inspiration from artists such as Bill Viola and Shirin Neshat, particularly their masterful use of symbolism, deliberate slowness, and physical presence to evoke intense emotional and immersive experiences. This historical lens underscores her contemporary relevance, demonstrating how she builds upon legacies of media art to address today’s visual landscape.
In an era dominated by 16:9 scroll-based digital lives, Alakbarli’s moving-image work is acutely pertinent. “We increasingly experience the world through screens, motion, and fragmented attention,” she said.
Her art both reflects and resists this condition. While our visual literacy is shaped by rapid transitions and endless scrolling, she champions the contrast between speed and slowness.
“We consume thousands of moving images every day, yet very few encourage us to pause and truly observe,” said Alakbarli, whose time-based media art offers crucial opportunities for reflection within overstimulated digital environments.
One of her most impactful pieces, How to Destroy Language, was exhibited at the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Palace of Shirvanshahs in Azerbaijan, the country’s oldest palace. This setting created a profound dialogue between historical memory and contemporary cultural loss. The work uses a grid to compartmentalize activities, reflecting on cultural erasure and the fragility of language under systems of power.
“Language carries memory, identity, and collective history, so when it is disrupted, culture becomes fragmented as well,” Alakbarli explains. The grid structure visually conveys a sense of categorization and control, symbolizing how human expression can be monitored or reorganized, echoing the psychological effects of suppression and disconnection from cultural identity.
Alakbarli’s work resonates internationally because it taps into universally recognizable emotional experiences; memory, isolation, intimacy, identity, and transformation. Her approach, rooted in atmosphere, gesture, and rhythm, transcends specific cultural references, making her art emotionally intuitive across diverse audiences. Furthermore, her own background growing up between different systems and identities has profoundly shaped her exploration of fragmentation and belonging, themes that echo broader contemporary experiences globally.
This commitment to slowing the viewer down, inviting presence, and fostering emotional connection is paramount in our hyper-fast digital worlds. Alakbarli intentionally employs repetition, stillness, subtle movement, and restrained pacing to encourage viewers to linger with an emotion rather than hastily moving past it. Her philosophy posits that softness is a form of strength; that warmth, texture, and emotional resonance are not antithetical to rigor, but rather expressions of it.
Among her celebrated works is the animation Mavi, which has screened at over a dozen international festivals and earned multiple awards. This poetic animation, inspired by childhood imagination and emotional warmth, follows the dreamlike journey of the moon playing with her cat, Mavi, drawing inspiration from Hayao Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro and Remedios Varo’s Star Maker.
Another notable piece, Metamorphosis, a 15-second animated exploration of fluid identity and transformation, captivated audiences on a Times Square billboard for four consecutive days in 2025, being seen by millions of passersby on one of New York City’s busiest blocks.
The contrast of this quiet, contemplative artwork against the sensory overload of Times Square created a powerful tension between intimacy and spectacle. The piece was shown through ZAZ10TS, a digital billboard gallery and public art space in Times Square that exclusively showcases contemporary artists and digital works.
“I was interested in creating something visually hypnotic and emotionally ambiguous, where the imagery constantly evolves without fully settling into a fixed form,” said Alakbarli. “What made the experience especially meaningful was the contrast between the piece itself and the environment it occupied. Times Square is associated with speed, advertising, and sensory overload, so presenting a quieter and more contemplative work there created an interesting tension between intimacy and spectacle.”
Visit Aylin Alakbarli’s website at aylin.works.
