The Evil of Anarche in the Age of Technical Images
I Imagine Angels
2022.09.25—2023.02.19
Artists: Guillaume Apollinaire, disnovation.org, Gustave Doré, Max Ernst, Beatrice Gibson, Avita Guo, Zhangbolong Liu, Ohlsson/Dit-Cilinn, Tomas Vu
Curator: Clement Huang
Time: 25 Sept 2022—19 Feb 2023
Location: 2F, The Cloisters Apartments, 62 West Fuxing Road, Shanghai
Perhaps no image is richer and more attuned to the symptoms of modernity than that of angels. French philosopher of science Michel Serres pointed out in Angels: A Modern Myth that, since ‘angels’ could be understood etymologically as ‘bearers of messages’, they play a role analogical to that of information technology in our contemporary world.
In a similar vein, Italian political philosopher Giorgio Agamben compares the paradigm of medieval angelology to modern bureaucratic organisation and establishes a surprisingly Kafkaesque correspondence between the heavenly and earthly orders.
Based on texts by the two philosophers, I Imagine Angels is an assemblage of ancient and modern images of angels who manifest themselves figuratively or metaphorically in the arts and technology, and in private and public mediums. Each angel has their own cosmological or political implications, and represents a speculative response to the recent global development of technocracy.
About the Curator
Clement Huang is an aesthete and anarchist based in Beijing, China, who writes, translates, and researches arts and culture, often with philological, iconographic, or psychoanalytic perusal. He is currently curator and researcher at MACA.
About the The Cloister Project
The Cloister Project is MACA’s special project space in Shanghai. The Cloister Project is situated on the fringes of Shanghai’s urban culture, embracing artistic intuition and novel creativity. The Cloister Project is the successor of the cultural salon, a place of ongoing encounters. The invited artists, curators, writers, and researchers are constantly shifting between the roles of host and guest, exploring the heterogeneity and spirituality of an artistic community today based on the common value of mutual respect.
Exhibition Photos
Avita Guo, White White xxx and xx Blanc Blanc xx et xx, 2022, Desktop, stationeries, artificial wing, artificial flowers, wooden balls, blankets, umbrellas, lace, mirrors, tracing paper, cotton, spray paint, oil on canvas, sound installations, dimensions variable. Commissioned by MACA. Installation view of “I Imagine Angels”, The Cloister Project, 2022, 2F, The Cloisters Apartments, 62 West Fuxing Road, Shanghai. Photography: Fengdi Ye.
Installation view of “I Imagine Angels”, The Cloister Project, 2022, 2F, The Cloisters Apartments, 62 West Fuxing Road, Shanghai. Photography: Fengdi Ye.
Installation view of “I Imagine Angels”, The Cloister Project, 2022, 2F, The Cloisters Apartments, 62 West Fuxing Road, Shanghai. Photography: Fengdi Ye.
Installation view of “I Imagine Angels”, The Cloister Project, 2022, 2F, The Cloisters Apartments, 62 West Fuxing Road, Shanghai. Photography: Fengdi Ye.
Installation view of “I Imagine Angels”, The Cloister Project, 2022, 2F, The Cloisters Apartments, 62 West Fuxing Road, Shanghai. Photography: Fengdi Ye
Installation view of “I Imagine Angels”, The Cloister Project, 2022, 2F, The Cloisters Apartments, 62 West Fuxing Road, Shanghai. Photography: Fengdi Ye
Beatrice Gibson, F for Fibonacci , 2014, ingle-channel video (color, sound), 16’00”. Installation view of “I Imagine Angels”, The Cloister Project, 2022, 2F, The Cloisters Apartments, 62 West Fuxing Road, Shanghai
Installation view of “I Imagine Angels”, The Cloister Project, 2022, 2F, The Cloisters Apartments, 62 West Fuxing Road, Shanghai. Photography: Fengdi Ye
Tomas Vu, Flatland, 2001, Acrylic, silkscreen, laser cut wood veneer, pencil, and gouache on Somerset paper, 118.5×88.5 cm (6 pictures). Installation view of “I Imagine Angels”, The Cloister Project, 2022, 2F, The Cloisters Apartments, 62 West Fuxing Road, Shanghai. Photography: Fengdi Ye.
Installation view of “I Imagine Angels”, The Cloister Project, 2022, 2F, The Cloisters Apartments, 62 West Fuxing Road, Shanghai. Photography: Fengdi Ye.
Installation view of “I Imagine Angels”, The Cloister Project, 2022, 2F, The Cloisters Apartments, 62 West Fuxing Road, Shanghai. Photography: Fengdi Ye
Installation view of “I Imagine Angels”, The Cloister Project, 2022, 2F, The Cloisters Apartments, 62 West Fuxing Road, Shanghai. Photography: Fengdi Ye
Installation view of “I Imagine Angels”, The Cloister Project, 2022, 2F, The Cloisters Apartments, 62 West Fuxing Road, Shanghai. Photography: Fengdi Ye.
Installation view of “I Imagine Angels”, The Cloister Project, 2022, 2F, The Cloisters Apartments, 62 West Fuxing Road, Shanghai. Photography: Fengdi Ye.
Installation view of “I Imagine Angels”, The Cloister Project, 2022, 2F, The Cloisters Apartments, 62 West Fuxing Road, Shanghai. Photography: Fengdi Ye
Ohlsson / Dit-Cilinn, Diluvians Les Diluvien·ne·s, 2020, Performance with floating jetty, knitwork, ash, oar, oakmoss, synthetic furs, various textiles and lake debris, 76×54cm (5 pictures ). Installation view of “I Imagine Angels”, The Cloister Project, 2022, 2F, The Cloisters Apartments, 62 West Fuxing Road, Shanghai. Photography: Fengdi Ye
disnovation.org, Predictive Art Bot , 2015—2018, Natural language processing, website, installation prototype, dimensions variable. Installation view of “I Imagine Angels”, The Cloister Project, 2022, 2F, The Cloisters Apartments, 62 West Fuxing Road, Shanghai. Photography: Fengdi Ye.
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