Looks at the Institute of Contemporary Arts

Spread over three rooms and two floors, Looks is a collaboration of different works by various artists, all trying to share a similar point with the viewer. The main idea of this exhibition is to explore the idea and influence that digital media holds, how it is restructuring the formation of identities, and the culture that it’s producing.

Juliette Bonnevoit, Andrea Crespo, Morag Keil, Wu Tsang and Stewart Uoo are all using various methods – print, paintwork, xenoestrogens, photography and film – to explore possibilities such as a post-human world order, especially with relations to the ideals of gender and sexuality, and also the possible mental and physical effects.

The impression that one gets when viewing the pieces and observing the stories behind them is of a world where the maintenance of an online persona is the norm. It is now a common duty to update an electronic audience with mundane information – as if the world is at all interested. As if it will ensure that a mark of existence has been left by partaking in this cultural phenomenon. The online world now is now becoming a main element in the construction of identity, and how this identity may be understood. The main sense that is portrayed is that human lives are no longer personal and the internet is just another tool to keep the status quo in check. 

Exploring all the different elements via various media, Looks is a wonderful and through-provoking look into today’s online age. The viewer is sure to leave feeling enlightened, with a few questions about the world after experiencing this eye-opening exhibition. To accompany the presentation, various films, tours, performances and talks will be available.

Amaliah Sara Marmon-Halm
Photos: Mark Blower

Looks is at Institute of Contemporary Arts from 22^nd April until 21^st June 2015, for further information visit here.