Artist Talk | Speculative Fabulation
Artist: Joey Holder
Date: 12.11.2017
Time: 13:00-14:00
Language: English (with Chinese interpreting)
Venue: Chronus Art Center (No.18, No.50 Mo Gan Shan Rd, Shanghai)
Organised by Chronus Art Center (CAC)
Co-organised by <ON AIR>
Free admission. To reserve a seat, please click here.
Donna J. Haraway, Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene
Joey Holder draws us into a fable of the ecosystems and anthroposystem. Connecting forms which have emerged through our human taste, culture and industrial processes, Holder investigates the complex systems that dissolve notions of the ‘natural’ and the ‘artificial’. Genetically modified products, virtual biology and aquatic creatures are incorporated into an extended web, challenging our perception of evolution, adaptation and transformation. By comparing the substances of the so-called ‘organic’ and ‘man-made’, and their perceptions through a series of abstractions, Holder creates a manifold world that shows the most natural and unified harmony than it has ever been. These hybridities may suggest a particular function or natural form but remain elusive through their odd displacement. During the event, Holder will transform the CAC project room into a sci-fact scenario with three works - Selachimorpha, Ophiuchus, and Ophiux, which will guide the audience to experience the artist’s fascination with our universe and the unknown.
Welcome to join the open-ended sharing about the future of science, medicine, biology and human-machine interactions!
Selachimorpha, 2017 © Courtesy the artist
Ophiuchus, 2016 © Courtesy the artist
Ophiux, 2016-2017 © Courtesy the artist
About the Artist
Joey Holder is a London based artist who received her BA from Kingston University (2001) and her MFA from Goldsmiths (2010). Her artistic practice and research spans video and multimedia installations both online and offline. Her work raises philosophical questions of our universe and things yet unknown, regarding the future of science, medicine, biology and human-machine interactions. Working with scientific and technical experts she makes immersive, multi-media installations that explore the limits of the human and how we experience non-human, natural and technological forms. Mixing elements of biology, nanotechnology and natural history against computer programme interfaces, screen savers and measuring devices, she suggests the impermanence and inter-changeability of these apparently contrasting and oppositional worlds: “everything is a mutant and a hybrid”.
Recent solo/duo exhibitions include SELACHIMORPHA, Photographers Gallery, London (2017); Ophiux, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge (2016); TETRAGRAMMATON, LD50, London (duo w/ John Russell) (2016); Lament of Ur, Karst, Plymouth (duo w/ Viktor Timofeev) (2015); BioStat., Project Native Informant, London (2015) and HYDROZOAN, The Royal Standard, Liverpool (2014). Recent group exhibitions include Alien Matter, transmediale, Berlin (2017); The Noise of Being, Sonic Acts, Amsterdam (2017); Winter is Coming, Georg Kargl, Vienna (2016); Deep Inside, 5th Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, Moscow, Russia (2016); The Uncanny Valley, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge (2015); BODY HOLES, New Scenario, online exhibition at the 9th Berlin Biennale, Berlin, Germany (2016); Sunscreen, online and at Venice Biennale (2015); A Plague of Diagrams, ICA, London, UK (2015); #WEC- Whole Earth Catalyst, The Composing Rooms, Berlin, Germany (2015); Hypersalon, Art Basel Miami, USA (2014); Vestige: The Future is Here, Design Museum, London (2013) and Multinatural Histories, Harvard Museum of Natural History, Massachusetts, USA (2013). Upcoming projects include Hydrozoan at the 7th Moscow International Biennale Of Contemporary Art, Russia; WALLPAPERS at New Forms Festival, Canada and Designing Desire at FACT, Liverpool, UK.
About <ON AIR>
As a joint initiative between International Art & Science Research Institute (China) and videoclub (UK), <ON AIR> will launch a series of art projects and events from 2017 to 2019 in both China and the UK.
<ON AIR> has received funding support from Arts Council England and Creative Scotland. Focusing on creativity and exchange in the field of contemporary art, it aims to bring about refreshing and diverse activities in forms of discussion, exhibition, performance and screenings.
* Free cold brew will be provided during the event to spark the intelligence and energy. Special thanks to SAY COFFEE COLD BREW for its generosity.
