Tech-tonic shifts

A new exhibition at Tai Kwun highlights what Chinese artists make of the digital revolution and growth of AI and how, for many of them, new technologies have shaped and altered their practice. Chitralekha Basu reports.

A mammoth robotic arm, swivels on its axis — trying to sweep away the dirty red liquid spreading across the white floor. It's a futile endeavor. The machine keeps trying, nevertheless — swooping down on recalcitrant trails of liquid. It behaves like a caged beast, triggered, as if, by the presence of visitors looking on from outside the transparent acrylic walls. In reality though, the movements are programmed and the control panel is displayed on a desktop screen, next to the installation.

Can't Help Myself (2016-19) by Sun Yuan and Peng Yu is easily the most visually compelling object in Stay Connected: Navigating the Cloud, which opened on Sept 24 at Tai Kwun. Featuring more than 50 works by 35 artists and art collectives, the show looks closely at what Chinese artists make of the digital revolution and the wide use of the internet in China since 2008. The artworks also reflect how the availability of advanced technologies has created new modes of art, sometimes profoundly altering an artist's practice — by providing tools, subject and inspiration.

Similar to Can't Help Myself, which invests a basic robotic arm movement with the kind of drama and emotion that feels almost human, there are a few other instances of artists inviting viewers to consider technology, and its tools, as works of art, in and of themselves. For instance, Phoebe Hui's series of drawings — produced by robots trained on open-source images from NASA as well as 17th-century engravings — are an attempt to visualize the side of the moon that remains hidden to us. The exhibition displays the drawings alongside a demonstration of how they are produced.