Arts / Museums

The Modern Challenges You to Think About Your Screen Time — Inside Fort Worth’s Timely New Important Exhibition

Taking a Closer Look at the Technology Overload

BY // 02.10.23

The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth is opening its new exhibition I’ll Be Your Mirror: Art and the Digital Screen this Sunday, February 12. It will be on view through April 30. Curator Alison Hearst has chosen to present the works in this exhibition thematically, rather than chronologically.

After getting an early sneak preview, here’s what you can expect.

I’ll Be Your Mirror: Art and the Digital Screen examines “the screen’s vast impact on art from 1969 to the present. This exhibition surveys more than 60 works from 50 artists over the past five decades,” Hearst notes. “This exhibition showcases more artists in one exhibition than any other in The Modern’s history.

“I’ve always been interested in technology and new art, and how artists responded to technology in their time.”

The idea for this exhibit came into view for Hearst during COVID, when the main forms of communication and collaboration became virtual. The works she has chosen explore media such as paintings, sculptures, video games, digital art, augmented reality and video.

Modern – A collection of cracked iphone screens in the ecology section of I’ll Be Your Mirror. (Photo by Courtney Dabney)
A collection of cracked iPhone screens titled No State by American Artist, in the ecology section of I’ll Be Your Mirror. (Photo by Courtney Dabney)

The pervasive often intrusive nature of screens that began when the moving picture was first captured during the silent movie era of the early 20th century and continued with the introduction of the television, which entered our daily lives and homes in the 1950s, has become dramatic. But, it’s the rapid-fire onslaught of the digital world, which has led to most of us being bombarded with images and a vast amount of content on TVs, computer screens and smartphones that is showcased in this exhibit.

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I’ll Be Your Mirror challenges viewers to confront how screens have forever changed the world and human interaction itself.

At the entry to the exhibit is a work from Penelope Umbrico titled 48,586,054 Suns from Sunsets from Flickr. This collage of some 1,200 sunset photos is slightly overwhelming. And that’s the point. The amount of information and options we have at our fingertips today is a lot to process. Sunsets from Flickr impresses on the viewer the vast amount of content available now.

“Screens affect nearly every aspect of life today. Their pervasiveness has bred a 24/7 breaking news cycle, the looming corporate-sponsored virtual-reality Metaverse, unlimited accessibility and content, and an ease in how ideas and images are distributed, undoubtedly shaping culture in profound ways,” a release from The Modern details.

Modern – Artist Huntrezz Janos interacts with Andy2 by Andy Warhol where her artworks are also on display.
Artist Huntrezz Janos interacts with Andy2 by Andy Warhol in this exhibit where her artworks are also on display. (Photo by Courtney Dabney)

Many of the artworks in this new exhibition are fittingly interactive too. One installation includes a vintage Amiga computer shell. Andy2 by Andy Warhol containing remastered digital images from the artist himself. Museum goers are invited to click through folders on the now archaic-looking computer to explore the computer drawings from an artist who was so famous for exploring new mediums.

Two other works from artist Huntrezz Janos are set side by side. Called Hologram Mythography and Tinsel Polycarbonate, they are interactive real-time videos of augmented reality filters and 3-D animations. Janos was on hand to explain the face-filtering artworks during the sneak preview tour.

Also joining the preview, was the creator of one of the largest artworks in the entire exhibit. Thousand Little Brothers v7, from Hasan Elahi wraps an entire wall with scenes from his daily life. A long-term project that saw him capture the mundane moments of his daily life, including all the beds he slept in, all the food he ate and even the toilets he used.

“The normalization of self surveillance is a statement about social media,” Elahi says. “The more data you feed AI, the more proficient they get at it.”

Modern – Artist Hasan Elahi poses in front of his monumental work Thousand Little Brothers v7. (Photo by Courtney Dabney)
Artist Hasan Elahi poses in front of his monumental work Thousand Little Brothers v7. (Photo by Courtney Dabney)

I’ll Be Your Mirror: Art and the Digital Screen goes on to explore the post-human body with five fembots set on pedestal legs at eye-level (they disturbingly following your every move) in Ashley Madison Angels at Work in London from !Mediengruppe Bitnik. Ecology is also examined in an arrangement of discarded iPhones, all sporting their all-too-familiar cracked glass faces, in No State by American Artist. Ecology is among the other nine key themes in the show.

I’ll Be Your Mirror: Art and the Digital Screen doesn’t play it safe either. It contains some mature content.

The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth offers free admission every Friday. On other days, you can purchase tickets at the admission desk, or online here.

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