The expo includes new commissions and existing works from nine artists whose work are all ‘born digital’
Images: Lee Blalock, Cao Fei, Addie Wagenknecht & Aiala Hernando
NYUAD Art Gallery has announced it will conclude a season of online events with a final virtual exhibition that launches on 20 January.
not in, of, along, or relating to a line, the name of the exhibition, will include ‘born digital’ and is guest-curated with NYUAD faculty and artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg.
The exhibition includes new commissions and existing works from artists Cao Fei, Sophia Al-Maria, Zach Blas, Addie Wagenknecht, Eva and Franco Mattes, Lee Blalock, Maryam Al Hamra, micha cárdenas, as well as the collective of Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, and Hesam Rahmanian.
The artists explore how identities and histories are created, transformed, or invented. For some, technology is a means to an end: a memoir, a fictional history, an intimate view of a person’s life. Others interrogate the power relations of these same tools, from virtual gaming and ‘big data’ consumer portraits to facial recognition software.
Curated for ease of viewing on a mobile device, visitors will be able to use their touchscreen to move from artwork to artwork, along a series of forking paths.
The exhibition has been designed to enable each journey to be entirely unique, with no two visitors having the exact same experience.
“The line is a direct path, the most efficient route between two points. It evokes a sense of movement forward, of progress,” says Maya Allison, Executive Director of The NYUAD Art Gallery, University’s Chief Curator, and co-curator of the exhibition.
“A line can also be a boundary: in 2020 we crossed the threshold of the global pandemic, and yet, it was not one, but multiple thresholds, depending on the individual’s context, which might yield widely disparate experiences.”
New York University Abu Dhabi’s Visiting Assistant Professor, transdisciplinary artist, and exhibition co-curator Heather Dewey-Hagborg pointed out that pre-pandemic, the smartphone was already seen as an extension of our bodies.
“We are all already cyborgs, existing simultaneously on multiple planes through these technologies that extend our bodies into the virtual world. Wittingly or not, humans have embarked on a journey of self-modification through technology. “
not in, of, along, or relating to a line, explores a new way of experiencing digitally-born artwork in a unique virtual setting, and using an innovative curatorial approach.
For more information, visit nyuad-artgallery.org