Deconfiguration[s]

Shanghai—Pearl Lam is pleased to present Deconfiguration[s], a group exhibition which emerges from a critique of traditional curatorial logic where the practice of subjecting artworks to an overarching theme may delimit audiences within a set interpretation. Drawing from the concept in cloud computing that denotes the decommissioning of systems via revoking access rules, Deconfiguration[s] manifests itself as an experiment and focuses on artists whose practices engage with figuration in different formats. With the assistance of different Large Language Models (LLMs), we have invited nine artists, including Alimi Adewale, Cornelius Annor, Chen Yufan, Mr Doodle, Samuel Nnorom, Babajide Olatunji, Qian Jiahua, Deborah Segun and Zhang Muda, to provoke an interplay of multilateral or even contradictory narratives, while re-sorting the artworks as impromptu entities that are ready for public engagement.

A Prompt/Provocation: This exhibition utilises artificial intelligence to destabilise the meanings of artworks through repetitive juxtapositions of artworks at different locations inside the gallery. Consider this exhibition as autonomous driving: the artworks merely function as open source. We invite audiences to make this engagement with the artworks personal by using artificial and intelligent means. They are encouraged to bear in mind but not be limited to the following narratives while going through this exhibition and to relate to the artworks based on their own personal experiences. After all, the audience is the ultimate author and the auteur of this narrative.