Chat GP Tea

Olivia Aguiar, Reginald Balanga, Rachel Del Bono, Dylan Coady, Brigita Gedgaudas, Kahani Ploessl, Alexandra M. Tremblay, Sohyun Yoon   

December 13 to January 14  

Opening Reception December 13, 3:30-5:00pm  

Drawing from the AI ChatGPT and the queer slang “tea” meaning insider scoop, Chat GP Tea is an exhibition that situates memory and futurity within the realms of technology, human-machine interaction and digital inhabitance through various artistic approaches.  

Themes of memory and loss are investigated in the exhibition: Balanga walks into the distorted road that leads to a childhood home, hinting at migratory grief and the incomprehensible desire to be elsewhere; Tremblay projects softness, warmth and loving memories of domestic space onto cold machinery; Aguiar explores the complexity of identity by engaging with digital debris as an extended form of autonomy; Del Bono captures and preserves relationships and the perishing of them through the collaging of both physical and ephemeral artifacts.  

The idea of change and futurity are also explored: Yoon recreates beauty using reproduced objects, evoking conflict between the objects’ original and repurposed significations; Gedgaudas situates queer bodies in the digital space, holding room for the exploration of queerness within seemingly rigid cultural binaries; Ploessl maximizes participator control in digital inhabitance by reclaiming once-unwanted glitches as organic elements in gameplay; Coady’s work reflects upon childhood interests under the changing scopes of a post-crisis world. 

Chat GP Tea invites viewers into the intersections and in-between zones of technology and human experience. By exploring, imagining and re-imagining technology from both personal and encompassing views, the exhibition offers new artistic ways to look at the ever-evolving relationship between humanity and technology.  

Curatorial Essay  

Ann Tong Li  

Curators  

Morgan Mavis, Tibi Neuspiel 

Image: Dylan Coady, Gatekeeper 2023