InterAccess is pleased to present the 22nd Annual IA Current Exhibition, All watched over by machines of loving grace, running November 8 – December 9, 2023.
Curated by Gladys Lou, this group exhibition explores how human-computer interaction has transformed the meaning of love and romance in the digital age. It considers ways that technology facilitates the process of searching for love and liberates non-heteronormative identities by enabling representation of self beyond the binaries. The exhibition asks the audience what makes love real: the lover, the loved one, or the medium by which love is conveyed?
Working across magnetic art, kinetic sculpture, web art, interactive sensors, and thermal installation, artists Chia Amisola, Yoshe Li, Callum Schuster, Zuyva Sevilla, and Derek Toomes consider the evolving shapes and forms that intimate relationships can take in the virtual sphere. The selected works investigate attraction and repulsion, communication codes, arguments and conflicts, warmth and presence, and intimacy across distance through online platforms. Together, Lou and featured artists redefine what it means to love and be loved in the contemporary age and explore new modes of bonding that transcend the boundaries of the physical and virtual worlds.
The exhibition title is inspired by Richard Brautigan’s 1967 poem of the same name that describes a utopian future where humans and machines live in harmony.
Related Events
Opening Reception
Wednesday, November 8, 2023, InterAccess, 7 – 9pm
FREE (no registration required)
Sound Bath Meditation on Love
InterAccess, Details TBA
FREE (registration required)
Love Letter Writing & Exchange
InterAccess, Ongoing
FREE (no registration required)
About the Curator
Gladys Lou is a Hong Kong-Canadian artist and curator with an HBA in Art & Art History and Psychology from the University of Toronto and Sheridan College. Her practice utilizes experimental media and new technologies, including video, sound, and new media, to challenge the boundaries of sensory perception. Her work explores shifting perceptions of light, colour, and memory, visualizing emotions and the unconscious.
Lou’s art has been exhibited at InterAccess, Workman Arts, Art Museum at the University of Toronto, Blackwood Gallery, Art Gallery of Mississauga, and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Alicante. Her critical writing has been featured in Pleasure Dome’s eBook and Hamilton Artist Inc.’s digital publication. She was awarded a Fulbright scholarship with a placement at the University of Washington, where she studied Digital Art and Experimental Media. Gladys was selected as a participant of the Power Plant’s RBC Emerging Artist Network in 2022–2023 and has interned at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. with the Time-Based Media working group. She was awarded the 27th Annual Mississauga Arts Awards in the Multimedia Arts (Emerging) category, and first prize at Video Fever 2023 by Trinity Square Video, Vtape, and Images Festival.
About IA Current
The InterAccess Current (IA Current) program supports the professional development of emerging curators and artists interested in new media and electronic practices. Each year, InterAccess selects an emerging curator, who works closely with InterAccess staff to conceptualize and execute an exhibition of works by emerging artists. “Current” refers to the now, of course, but it is also an energetic charge that causes light, heat, and all manner of electronic life; an apt metaphor for emergent creative practices within the ever-expanding field of new media.
More information at interaccess.org
Image courtesy of exhibiting artist, Zuyva Sevilla
InterAccess / 950 Dupont St., Unit 1. / Toronto ON M6H 1Z2 / Canada
