“Emotional Device” Installation view at P21 ©P21Wu Jiaru’s (b. 1992) solo exhibition Emotional Device will be on view at P21 from October 21 to November 25.
Wu Jiaru has been featuring paintings using automatism, which is related to the artist’s interest in the relationship between subjectivity and rationality. This stems from the artist’s childhood experience in China, where she received Soviet-style art training that emphasized uniformity and rationality. The artist adopted an automatized, meditative way of creating to break away from uniformity and rationality. It has evolved into an exploration of the entanglement between humans and technological objects and the impact of technology on artists. This relationship is explored especially through AI. She focuses on the AI’s impact that shakes up the identity of the artist, who is traditionally considered the subject of artistry.
The exhibition is divided into two spaces, P1 and P2. P1 displays automatic drawings that the artist has been concentrating on. P2 extends them into a three-dimensional world, with paintings depicting objects related to destruction, such as shattered glass and damaged umbrellas.
