Exhibition Review: 404: error
Exhibition on view:
16 June – 16 July, 2023
11:00am – 5:30pm
Wednesday through Sunday
Curated By:
Natasha Chuk
Location:
:iiddr gallery
162 Allen St
New York, NY
404: error is at :iiddr gallery in New York City
Watch our reel from the exhibition!
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Watch our reel from the exhibition! 〰️
One winter night in 1905, the 11-year-old Frank Epperson mixed soda water powder and water to make a soft drink, but mistakenly left it on the porch overnight with the stirring stick in it. The story of the accidental invention of the Popsicle is a perfect example to how a simple error can give birth to something incredible. As the name suggests, 404: error is an exhibition that celebrates this phenomenon.
Glitches are understood as malfunctions or inconveniences that lead to unwanted results; but these events that disrupt our everyday life oftentimes are the best opportunities to discover a new way of thinking. Whether that be a classic summertime favorite or astounding art, we find inspiration right where the regularity is unsettled.
The collection in 404: error presents a variety of works where errors, malfunctions, and failures are opportunities to challenge existing conventions instead of problems that need fixing. The exhibition is about embracing these moments of disruptions and seeing them as a meaningfully disruptive force that produces a new way of thinking.
Bringing together 11 artists that strive when the order is interrupted, the exhibition is a brilliant salute to creating within uncertainty, manipulating the aesthetics of chaos, and exploring glitch as a form of expression.
404: error is at :iiddr gallery in New York City
Marilyn Mitchell’s Mistaken Love (2011) takes a most common human and machine error, typo, and champions it in a coding system, where Soonhyun Kim’s Endless Optimism (2023) is a playful data visualization of cityscapes, created using generative AI.
Will Pappenheimer’s digital animation Character Development (Glitch Shield) (2021) utilizes a digital glitch he encountered in the process of creating a 3D avatar and draws parallels between the machine and our vulnerable human identities. Similarly, Ryan Van Der Hout’s Column (2023) is a sculpture that reconfigures the queer body in fragments and photographs; and Gia Abucejo’s video Shield Ambience (2023) explores digital space as a field to liberate one from fixed gender roles and identities.
Jingyao Huang’s Chaotic Data Fences, Baraka, and the Cityscape (2022) and Hyemi Kim’s Clockwise I (2023) remind us of collage art with its creative use of mixed materials and repurposed photographs. The works present an alternative to photographic expression by utilizing the technical limitations to explore novel visual languages.
Anshul Roy’s web-based work Untitled (Rage Against the Archive) (2023) is a thoughtful gesture to restore the dignity of a culture — the artist shares his process of exposing, deleting, and inserting different content to the problematic archive of the New York Public Library. Read our interview with the artist to learn more about the project!
Fluid Technature (2023) Aaron Juarez uses the visual breakdown of technology to explore the organic-like structure of digital material. And lastly, Pappenheimer’s Mirrored Lines Painter (2023) uses augmented reality to glitch the viewer’s environment via the AR painting simulator.
Will Pappenheimer, Character Development (Glitch Shield), 20212K HD video 5:54 min, custom game figure, 3D media
The collection also features a meditative video, Water Gate (2023) by eteam, which shows the viewer how the rhythm of the nature is disrupted when a mechanical device intrudes to control its momentum.
The exhibition presents a wonderful collection of art that features various materials and media that find meaning in malfunctions and systemic failures. 404: error invites the viewer to ponder on the ideologies and designs that shape systems, as they become clearly visible once the pattern is disrupted.
404: error is curated by Natasha Chuk, who is a media theorist, educator, and independent curator focused on the relationships between art, philosophy, and technologies. Holding a PhD in Media and Communication Philosophy, an MA in Media Studies, and a BA in Cinema Studies, Chuk studies media objects as systems of language, creativity, and persuasive power. Her critical approach contributes brilliantly to this collection as she puts the artwork in conversation with our overall understanding of the world.
“Overall, I am interested in how we understand the world — phenomenologically and through our tools and practices — and the ways individual, collective, social, and political identities and behaviors are imagined, performed, and perceived through creative systems.”
The exhibition is at the :iidrr gallery in the Lower East Side of New York City. It’s an artist-run gallery that’s focused on new media art and trendy cultures. Founded by Shuwan Chen and Annie Chen Ziyao in 2020, :iidrr has a mission to support artists who are critically engaged in new technologies and cultures. They program exhibitions, experiences, performances, and artist talks for the artists and collectors alike.
Visit :iidrr gallery through 16 July to see 404: error!
404: error is at :iiddr gallery in New York City
