The art exhibition opens on 20 August and features the works of artists and collectives from mainland China, Taiwan and Macao
A Macao art exhibition explores the themes of AI and romance
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Gen Love-Disabled (愛無能世代) – a free contemporary art exhibition that explores the idea of love in the digital age – is scheduled to be run at Macao’s Albergue SCM between 20 August and 7 September.
Organised by the Macau New Woman Development Association, the exhibition features the works of regional artists – Lu Shan, an artist based in Beijing and Qingdao; Simple Noodle Art, a collective from Taipei, and Solène Su Cheng, an artist working in Macao.
Using the notion of “love-disabled” as an anchor, the artists responded to what they perceived as the fluid and confusing nature of contemporary love, as shaped by digital technology such as AI.
What works are on display?
Simple Noodle Art, which won an honorary mention at the 2023 Prix Ars Electronica, will be presenting Exploration and Exploitation – an interactive installation that employs live AI facial emotion recognition technology to look at intimacy as a commercial product.
Lu takes a different approach with his AI-generated video Island Man by looking at the way AI impacts digital identity, solitude and memory.
Meanwhile, Macao artist Cheng is showcasing her Knives series of new photography and poetry artbook, which explores the psychology of fractured attachment, or the desire for closeness coupled with the worry that bonds will fall apart.
What do the art exhibition organisers hope to achieve?
“Being love-disabled is not the absence of feeling,” curator Kathine Cheong explained. “However fragile and shifting love may be in our time, it never stops people from longing for it.”
Cheong added that she hopes the exhibition can help audience members to deal with the ambivalence arising from “the flux and contradictions of the love-disabled generation between virtual and the reality,” and to “break free from the predicament of our times.”
Carol Li, the president of the Macau New Woman Development Association, was hopeful that the exhibition would allow spectators to move to an active engagement on the issue, allowing them to “reflect on the relationship between self and love.”
[See more: Macao media art exhibition and performance event announced]
Funded by the Macao government’s Cultural Development Fund, the event will also feature a number of auxiliary events, including a panel talk with Lu and Simple Noodle Art on opening night, a somatic awareness workshop held by Lululemon ambassadors, a book study led by academic and director of Ex LAB Taiwan Chung Yi Ting, and guided tours.
Gen Love-Disabled runs daily between 12 pm and 7 pm, and from 3 pm to 7 pm on Mondays. For more information, click here.
