Invisible Recursion
M P Birla Millennium Art Gallery
28th June—2nd July 2023
Curators:
Haijia Blair Luo
Lan Ying
Ran Zhu
Artists:
Bede Robinson
Jiujian Zeng
Noa Geras
Theo Papandreopoulos
Press Release
“Recursion can be a drag.” – Donna J. Haraway
Welcome to Inception 2023, not Christopher Nolan’s new dream cycle, but a material repetitive cycle of cause and effect. The cascading effects of our actions on each other and ecosystems force us to reimagine our interpersonal relationships and relationships with the non-human world. Donna J. Haraway astutely reminds us, recursion can become burdensome, leading to a paradoxical state of authenticity and alienation.
Marshall McLuhan proposed that technology, as an extension of man, is inherently fragmentary and superficial in its pattern of human relationships. As we delve deeper into the 21st century, this notion has never been more relevant. A sense of relationlessness is evident in the interaction between human activity and its objective outcome, technology, which is not merely a tool we use but as part of our lives. It is an entity that creates, transforms, and sometimes disrupts our social fabric.
Humans, both as organisms and information systems, create social and information networks. In this context, technology becomes a medium of communication, a social network that both shapes and is shaped by us. However, this relationship is not without its complexities. The uneven distribution of access to and ability to use technology creates disparities and conflicts, heightening tensions in interpersonal relationships.
By playing with materiality, artworks on display reconceive the recursive cycle that technology engenders. As we navigate through the exhibition, we encounter these materials in a state of constant transformation and metamorphosis. This exhibition is an effort to enable discussions and reimagine interpersonal relationships through materials. It is a journey into the heart of the tension between people, technology, and the world we inhabit, to reflect on the role of technology and recursion in our lives.