lookaftering

Over the past year, Katie Davis and Michael Kellner have been making artworks about watching and being watched. In Davis's paintings and sculptures, the inspiration comes from being watched by technology. Through Google search and popular apps like Instagram, an algorithm attempts to function as a means of channeling desire, predicting needs based on a user's perceived interests. Davis has been intrigued and troubled by the way we have casually adapted to this intrusion in our lives. She sees her paintings and sculptures as a way of thinking through the way we have invited algorithmic thinking into our lives. Through her use of color, imagery, and installation she considers living with and resisting the ubiquitous digital technologies in our lives. In Kellner's soundwork, collages, and sculptures, the inspiration is rooted in watching over others, particularly in the way we care for the world around us. Like Davis, Kellner is a parent and caregiver. Care ethics is a central theme in his work, thinking about both what it means to help others flourish in the world and how to care for people and things as they age. Through collecting and archiving, Kellner is interested in small gestures people make to care for one another and how families and communities are maintained through these actions. The title of this exhibition, lookaftering, comes from an album by the folk musician Vashti Bunyan. In an interview, Bunyan mentioned the word was made up by her family as a way of checking in on each other. In exhibiting their artwork together, Davis and Kellner hold space for the complexity of looking after others. They think about the ways this idea is commodified and resisted. By embracing the slipperyness of these ideas, the artists invite visitors to slow down in the gallery and notice the idiosyncratic ways we experience our moments together.

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Made possible in part by an investment of public funds from the Ohio Arts Council (OAC).