Shift

Cassina Projects is pleased to present Shift, the third show by German multidisciplinary artist Louisa Clement (*1987) with the gallery.

Digging deeper into her extensive exploration of socially disruptive technology and transhumanism, Clement’s new display featuring installation, video and wall pieces zeroes in on a somber scenario where the artificial and the human eerily feed on each other.

Compelled to negotiate the perilous potential of genomic manipulations, the show taps into the controversial advancements brought along by the CRISPR/Cas9 technology, often described as “genetic scissors”, which has for the first time enabled scientists to make precise changes in the long stretches of DNA that make up the code of life for many organisms, including human beings. Today widely used in basic science, biotechnology and in the development of future therapeutics, the actual reprogramming of the genome of a living cell raises complex ethical concerns as the once-utopian machination of seizing control of biology to the extent of being able to create the perfected human now looms close.

With Compression, a tiny stainless steel capsule containing the artist’s work to date which has been sequenced and transformed into DNA, Clement lays bare the boundless possibilities of generation and manipulation of DNA. Having had that very same sequence also implanted into her own body, she softly caresses the vulnerable desire of holding, securing and archiving while speculating on the legitimacy of biocybernetics DNA data storage meant to outlive us.

Two videos – Off Target and Believers – further confront consciousness, subjectivity and dynamics of collective interaction from an angle of aseptic technological standardization. If the former acts as a moving image extension of Compression and emphasizes concerns of control and authority over genome integrity, the latter questions the fate of spirituality in an AI-generated ecosystem. AI-generated sermons and made-up excerpts from the Bible come across as meaning-deprived as they are delivered by random AI-generated preachers whose machine-like dullness betrays the absurdity of faith mediated by technology.

A selection of Mirrors line up on the walls, translucent and captivating. Their bent surface and the coloured filters applied onto the plexi seem to toy with vanity yet reflected figures turn out distorted, questioning perception and awareness. Works from the series Avatar hang alongside the Mirrors calling upon intimacy, compassion and alienation. Sleek undistinguishable mannequins exude lifelessness and physicality at the same time. Feelings of anonymous homologation and empathy coexist.