Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing

Film

Born 1990 in Wuyi Mountains, China
Lives in Berlin, Germany, and Geneva, Switzerland

Following the motif of a loop, ÆTHER (Poor Objects) addresses a central theme of Shuang Li’s yearslong artistic inquiry: the entanglement of individual subjectivity and internet culture, particularly regarding the Chinese government’s exploitation of technology for political surveillance and economic growth. Born in 1990 in rural southeastern China, Li recalls spending her teenage years obsessively accessing the music and video content of Myspace and YouTube, playing with imitation Nintendo consoles and listening to dakou—Western CDs with cuts that were distributed on the black market. These experiences are mirrored in ÆTHER (Poor Objects) where, through a fish-eye lens distortion, the film evolves into a kaleidoscopic array of digitally modified footage and computer-generated animation, showcasing motifs like swarms of birds, a sun in eclipse, ring lights popular among social media influencers, and fried chicken, a staple in mukbang (eating show) videos. As if entering portals into the artist’s preoccupations—technology, biopolitics, and desire—the viewer is invited to ponder the virtual realm’s enmeshment with our physical world.