Exhibition: June 28 - July 1, 1 1am - 6pm; July 2, 11am - 3pm

Private View: June 28, 6pm - 8.30pm

“Recursion can be a drag.” – Donna J. Haraway

Welcome to Inception 2023, not Christopher Nolan’s new dream cycle, but a material repetitive

cycle of cause and effect. The cascading effects of our actions on each other and ecosystems

force us to reimagine our interpersonal relationships and relationships with the non-human

world. Donna J. Haraway astutely reminds us, recursion can become burdensome, leading to a

paradoxical state of authenticity and alienation.

Marshall McLuhan proposed that technology, as an extension of man, is inherently fragmentary

and superficial in its pattern of human relationships. As we delve deeper into the 21st century,

this notion has never been more relevant. A sense of relationlessness is evident in the

interaction between human activity and its objective outcome, technology, which is not merely

a tool we use but as part of our lives. It is an entity that creates, transforms, and sometimes

disrupts our social fabric.

Humans, both as organisms and information systems, create social and information networks.

In this context, technology becomes a medium of communication, a social network that both

shapes and is shaped by us. However, this relationship is not without its complexities. The

uneven distribution of access to and ability to use technology creates disparities and conflicts,

heightening tensions in interpersonal relationships.

By playing with materiality, artworks on display reconceive the recursive cycle that technology

engenders. As we navigate through the exhibition, we encounter these materials in a state of

constant transformation and metamorphosis. This exhibition is an effort to enable discussions

and reimagine interpersonal relationships through materials. It is a journey into the heart of the

tension between people, technology, and the world we inhabit, to reflect on the role of

technology and recursion in our lives.

Curator: TRA Collective (Blair Haijia Luo, Ran Zhu, Lanzehang Ying) 

Executive Curator: Jiujian Zeng 

Artists: Jiujian Zeng, Noa Geras, Bede Robinson, Theo Papandreopoulos

Image Credit: Nuzzi Li

Contact TRA Collective 

Email: tra.collective.uk@gmail.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tracollective/?hl=en-gb