Claudia Schmuckli

Suitors & Strangers

Amy Sillman

Between Afrofuturism, fantasy and postcolonialism: the most comprehensive monograph to date on the fantastical worlds of Wangechi Mutu Wangechi Mutu takes viewers on journeys of material, psychological and sociopolitical transformation; this volume explores her most recent groundbreaking work. Over the past two decades, Mutu has created chimerical constellations of powerful female characters, hybrid beings and fantastical landscapes. With a rare understanding of the need for powerful new mythologies beyond simple binaries and stereotypes, Mutu breaches common distinctions between human, animal, plant and machine. An artist who calls both Nairobi and New York City home, Mutu moves voraciously between cultural traditions to challenge colonialist, racist and sexist worldviews with her visionary projection of an alternate universe informed by Afrofuturism, posthumanism and feminism. This dazzling book accompanies a presentation of Mutu's new work on view at the Legion, along with a greater selection from her landmark oeuvre. It is the most comprehensive book on the artist to date.

Wangechi Mutu: I Am Speaking, Are You Listening?

Yuk Hui

Janna Keegan

An investigation of the cultural and academic discourse around new technology through a lens of artistic practice In 1970 Japanese engineer Masahiro Mori introduced the concept of the "uncanny valley" as a terrain of existential uncertainty that humans experience when confronted with autonomous machines that mimic their physical and mental properties. As subjectivities are increasingly organized and shaped by algorithms that track and evaluate our data, the question of what it means to be human has shifted. The featured artists mine the tropes and modalities of AI and machine learning for critical and aesthetic potential, proposing new ways of thinking about intelligence, nature, and artifice.

Claudia Schmuckli

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