Sophia’s Safehouse in an Uncanny Valley
An Installation by Lee Wells
“I think, therefore I am” – Descartes.
Darling Pearls & Co presents @ Darling’s Attic // flat in Hackney // Sophia’s Safehouse in an Uncanny Valley // a dramatis personae more than habitable home // premiere UK solo exhibition by the New York based conceptual artist Lee Wells.
After climbing stairs // a lot of them // find a multimedia environment in which you yourself will be part of an unfixed narrative. Its time = the near [inevitable // undefined] future in which independent thinking robots try to make sense of human qualities embedded in their system.
To this present-edit reality the celebrity culture of humanoid AI = so yesterday. In post-singularity // AI safe haven // human guests are invited to reflect upon the paradoxes of existence, identity and memory from the early 21st century.
The installation, inspired in part by the literary works of George Orwell, Mary Shelley, Philip K. Dick, Isaac Asimov, as well as other pulp science fiction, is a compelling allegory and critique of recent societal events.
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Lee Wells (b.1971) is a conceptual artist whose work ranges from painting and drawing to video and new media, systemically focusing on issues of power and control in society. His projects have been presented nationally and internationally for over 20 years in institutions such as the Guggenheim Museum, PS1/MoMA and the 51st Venice Biennale in addition to numerous festivals, art fairs and galleries. Wells was a co-founder of Perpetual Art Machine, the video art community portal project, and founder of the curatorial platform IFAC Arts in 1996. Wells currently shares his time between New York City and Athens.
