Allison de Fren - Mika Kan - Elena Knox - Lin Xin
"Can you fuck it?" – The Fembot Phenomenon takes as its title one of the prevailing online comments made each time a newly developed female-appearing robot is introduced in the mainstream media. "Fine, nice work there, but can you fuck it?," ask the anonymous legions on the internet.
In response to this response, the exhibition brings together four accomplished international women artists working in Asia, who consistently take female-appearing robots as subjects in their practice. Using humor, deconstruction, and the speculative reframing of a familiar figure, we offer an engaging and up-to-date critique of the modern phenomenon of the fembot.
Should a robot be sexy? What dictates the future of technology, and who redesigns the status quo? To properly address these questions, women's ideas must be acknowledged among those who would otherwise present objectified feminine embodiment as a fait accompli. We mount a tightly focused exhibition of women-identifying artists working across video, installation, photography, drawing, painting, and social documentary and debate. It is possibly the first time an exhibition has been themed "women make art about fembots."
The exhibition takes place in the beating heart of Tokyo, in a bar/restaurant opposite the famous Robot Restaurant in Kabukicho. We stage an intervention and party here. We invite people to think about the gendering and sexualization of machinery in times to come.
In response to this response, the exhibition brings together four accomplished international women artists working in Asia, who consistently take female-appearing robots as subjects in their practice. Using humor, deconstruction, and the speculative reframing of a familiar figure, we offer an engaging and up-to-date critique of the modern phenomenon of the fembot.
Should a robot be sexy? What dictates the future of technology, and who redesigns the status quo? To properly address these questions, women's ideas must be acknowledged among those who would otherwise present objectified feminine embodiment as a fait accompli. We mount a tightly focused exhibition of women-identifying artists working across video, installation, photography, drawing, painting, and social documentary and debate. It is possibly the first time an exhibition has been themed "women make art about fembots."
The exhibition takes place in the beating heart of Tokyo, in a bar/restaurant opposite the famous Robot Restaurant in Kabukicho. We stage an intervention and party here. We invite people to think about the gendering and sexualization of machinery in times to come.
Elena Knox is a media/performance artist based in Tokyo. Her works stage enactments of gender, presence and persona in technoscience and communications media. Recent presentations include Yokohama Triennale, Bangkok Art Biennale, Beijing Media Art Biennale, 'Future and the Arts' at Mori Art Museum, and 'Lux Aeterna' at Asia Culture Center.