347 327 4033
ayham@ayhamghraowi.com
ayham@ayhamghraowi.com
I am filmmaker and designer currently based in New Haven, Connecticut. I have taught studios, seminars, and workshops at the Department of Architecture at Cornell AAP, the Department of Art, Film and Visual Studies at Harvard University, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Yale School of Art where I was Critic.
While at Yale School of Art, I also served as the Assistant Dean for Research and Public Projects from 2017–2019. As Assistant Dean, I developed Critical Practice as an emerging area of study, while also organizing new initiatives, workshops, and programs as they related to all school, university, and broader cooperations, nationally and internationally.
While at Yale School of Art, I also served as the Assistant Dean for Research and Public Projects from 2017–2019. As Assistant Dean, I developed Critical Practice as an emerging area of study, while also organizing new initiatives, workshops, and programs as they related to all school, university, and broader cooperations, nationally and internationally.
The artist Mathew Zefeldt asked me to contribute an essay to a catalog of his work. The publication features his recent hyperrealist paintings of simulated worlds informed directly by the 2013 video game Grand Theft Auto V. Through first-person gameplay, the essay “Too Much for A Sendup” critiques GTA V’s claim to satire while calling into question the video game’s graphical surplus in it's endless pursuit of computer generated realism.
2023
On the occasion of Hito Steyerl’s 2021 exhibition "I Will Survive" displayed at both the Centre Pompidou and the K21 Düsseldorf, I was asked by the institutions to contribute a catalog essay that offers context to “Social Sim”, a new video installation by the artist. Published by Spector Books, the essay “Dance Dance Rebellion” explores how the demand for information during social unrest manifests as repetitive body movement—whether it be the synchronized “doomscrolling” of a news app, the rhythmic button-pressing of video-game play, or a “dancing mania”.
2021