Theo Angell
at Pr Public Library
January to April 2024
About the Exhibition
Mythinformation, an art exhibition envisioned by Theo Angell for the PRPL, ventures into the realms of history, AI ascendancy, and the paradoxical complexities of both ideological and material security. It is an odyssey into the gravitational pull of recycled myths, unraveling through tangible off-cast goods, entwining past and present narratives within innovative and unforeseen artistic expressions. It juxtaposes the haunting landscape of the burning Library of Alexandria against the omnipresent rise of AI, symbolized by a colossal sculpture of a “Chatbot Monster” aka “The Stochastic Parrot”. Through diverse commodities and data streams, the exhibit celebrates transformation. Spent brewery filters imprinted with abstract icons evoke the essence of ancient signs on papyri and crumbling tablets. 35mm film from movie trailers are woven into spreadsheet tapestries and ethereal armours, alongside “The Child,” who is sculpted from the melted plastic of automobile windshields harvested from a local incinerator heap (now a defunct monument itself). Masks made from computer packing materials adorn a wall while latex hands filled with shredded text reach for us. These elements symbolize a fusion of modernity and antiquity, embodying narratives woven from society’s discarded remnants. The exhibit incorporates a fanzine wherein we may ponder the legacy of glass beads and their digital descendants—the computer screen—as conduits shaping humanity’s fate through the exchange of novelty items for genuine goods and opportunities. The ideas venture further, contemplating the essence of AI through cultural and historical lenses, contemplating figures like Thoth, Homer, Hypathia, and Pythagoras as generative transformers. Intriguing images emerge, issued in an unforeseen amalgamation of found and cast-off substances, both digital and physical, embodying the Biblical phrase “The stone that the builder refused shall become the head cornerstone”. Amidst these explorations, the art grapples with the precariousness of cultural artifacts, the politics embedded in dictionaries, and the “eugenics of desire” revealed in AI-generated variations. We see muscled beach boys climbing a Tower of Babel. We find a pyramid of strange elf-like beings holding aloft each their own prize. Themes of leadership, unity, and empathy emerge through phrases like “Anyone can lead, anyone can follow,” contrasting with the cautionary “You have been pre-disapproved,” echoing the complexity of human interactions and expectation. The exhibit takes a deep dive into the heap of industrial compost where hidden seeds sprout, sometimes in the form of “indecisive avatars”, urging the contemplation of cross-colonialism, encapsulating the interplay between technology, manipulation, and colonial legacies. Mythinformation embraces a multiplicity of themes—melding history, faux history, technology, societal critique, and environmental consciousness—prompting viewers to think on the intricacies of our digital age as we live through the echoes of mythic times.
