Al Holmes (born January 27, 1973) and Al Taylor (born May 29, 1973) collectively known as AL and AL are British artist film directors, writers, curators and producers who won the Liverpool Art Prize in 2009.[1] AL and AL are pioneering artist film makers combining live action performance with computer generated 3D environments to create dream worlds in film. They began working together at Central Saint Martins Art School in 1999 where they studied Fine Art. In 2001 they were awarded an ACME residency transforming a warehouse in East London into a blue screen special effects film studio.
The artists have created an award winning body of work commissioned by Film London, animate projects,[2] Channel 4, Culture Company, MuHKA, World Science Festival and the Royal Society, exhibiting internationally in over 50 countries in galleries, site specific installations, film festivals and on television. Their critically acclaimed solo exhibition at the FACT gallery [3] during Liverpool's year as the European Capital of Culture toured to the National Art Museum of China in Beijing.[4] In 2009 AL and AL curated exhibitions at Edge Hill station [5] and with Edwin Carels at MuHKA which included works by Yves Klein and Anish Kapoor.[6] In 2010 AL and AL collaborated with composer Philip Glass and physicist Brian Greene on Icarus at the Edge of Time [7] which ABC news described as a "multimedia masterpiece".[8] The premiere of the Icarus film was introduced by Stephen Hawkings at the World Science Festival in New York and performed with a symphony orchestra.
AL and AL collaborated on their Eternal Youth book with Grant Morrison the graphic novel writer of Batman and Superman and the novelist and mythographer Marina Warner who focused on dreams, "AL and AL investigate the shaping forces of fantasy and reality. They both create dream worlds and stand back in their art to draw attention to their power over us, plunging the spectator into a virtual world of dizzy dimensions." Grant Morrison described his impression of the artists work on his web site, "AL and AL's work evokes memories for me of Jerry Cornelius stories, J.G.Ballard books, The Prisoner and my own best dreams." [9]
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