"The Uncanny: Experiments in Cyborg Culture"
2002-02-09 until 2002-05-26
Vancouver Art Gallery
Vancouver, BC, CA Canada

The Uncanny is a wide-ranging exhibition that explores historical and contemporary representation of the cybernetic body (part human / part machine) in the visual arts and popular culture. The exhibition proceeds from the premise that the image of the cyborg has traditionally provided our culture with a visual metaphor for the anxiety that accompanied the growing presence of the machine in western culture.

Modern culture’s representation of the cyborg shuttles between a celebratory fascination with the machine and an intense anxiety around masculinity and mechanical equipment. Key historical works will include a 19th century automaton, 19th Century scientific photography and early 20th Century artworks by Marcel Duchamp, Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger and Francis Picabia. The exhibition will also include contemporary works by Tony Oursler, Moriko Mori, Gary Hill, Takashi Murakami, Lee Bul, Survival Research Lab and many more. Both the historical and contemporary sections of the exhibition will be supplemented with popular cultural representations of the cyborg ranging from 19th Century illustrations and prints to contemporary film and Japanese anime, literature, comic books and illustrations.

IMAGE:
Kenji Yanobe
Yellow Suit (detail), 1991

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