LOUISA CLEMENT: REMOTE CONTROL

“What is a human being in a digital age in which the body's integrity is increasingly questioned through vehement medical and technological interventions?” This is the question that German artist Louisa Clement poses to her audience with her first solo exhibition in the Sprengel Museum of Hannover.

People have been controlling machines for decades. The exhibition points out that humans, instead, may have long been controlled by these machines. They shape their thinking, their image of themselves, and the world around them. 

I stumbled upon Clement’s extensive body of work it in a museum which already boasts an incredible collection, it dominates the ground floor almost entirely, consisting of her ‘varied investigations into everyday design’ in the form of sculptures, photographs, videos, wall works, and a new VR piece.

The sleek glowing mannequins she photographed and filmed with her smartphone camera drew my attention. They evoked an eerie and almost disturbing atmosphere that was counterbalanced by the artificiality of the figures. Gloved hands caress and interact with the translucent bodies, reminiscent of pink, yellow, and green candy. The artist explores photography's range of possibilities, while the mannequins; the ‘avatars’, conjure up the reality of the human body modified completely by technology.

Another striking work is ‘Aporias’, a piece where you put on a VR headset and encounter 3 ‘bots’; abstractions of the human body that the artist constantly uses in her work. The bots learn from the discussion between themselves and the viewer, they improve the way in which they respond and become better at asking questions. By going into the virtual space, the artist tries to start a conversation in which the viewer can interact with the piece, in a unique experience where the artist hands over the creation and execution of the work to something artificial, challenging the very idea that artistic creation can only be carried out by humans.

“Human presence in the artificial on the one hand, artificial presence in the human on the other hand”. Overall, Clements work seems to hold up a mirror to our current times, as technology seems to become more and more an extension of the human body. In a time of genetically designed babies and artificial intelligence advancements, it is true that technology can serve a great purpose, but where will we draw the line between the natural and the artificial?