How Has Desire Evolved in the Digital Age? A New Museum Show in Dublin Explores the Art of Lust—See Pictures Here

While museums around the globe are closed to the public, we
are spotlighting each day an inspiring exhibition that was
previously on view. Even if you can’t see it in person, allow us to
give you a virtual look. 

“Desire: A Revision from
the 20th Century to the Digital Age”
Irish Museum of
Modern Art

What the Museum Says: “From the beginning of
the 20th century to now, ‘Desire: A Revision’ develops through the
lens of the Eurocentric male gaze of the Surrealist artists and
their influence in shaping artistic depictions of desire in
contemporary culture. The exhibition examines how today’s crises of
identity, anxieties over humanity’s impact on the earth, and an
urgent sense of survival, have complicated our relationship to
contemporary desire.

New commissions of contemporary works alongside a succinct
selection of master works of the 20th-century offer a unique
examination of the relationship between desire, technological
advancements, and its impact on social structures.”

Why It’s Worth a Look: This large-scale
group show is the third in a trio of exhibitions put on by the
museum to address universal themes as they have evolved from the
20th and 21st centuries. The show—co-curated by Yuko Hasegawa of
the Museum of Contemporary
Art Tokyo and Rachel Thomas, head curator at the Irish
Museum of Modern Art in Dublin—delves into works by artists across
generations and nationalities.

By juxtaposing Surrealist works by Duchamp and Max Ernst with
contemporary artist Genieve Figgis’s neo-Mannerist portraits we see
the differences, and of course, the similarities in how artist’s
express physical and material desire. Awol Erizku’s rotating
sculpture of Nefertiti decked out in mirrored tiles hangs like a
disco ball, echoing the mirrors installed at the show’s entrance as
part of Yayoi Kusama’s Where the Light’s In My Heart
Go (2016). The show also includes video works like Cao
Fei’s RMB City, in which the artist’s desire to live
inside a video game became a reality; and David O’Reilly’s
interactive video game allows visitors to control the universe on
screen.

What It Looks Like:

The post How Has Desire Evolved in the Digital Age? A New
Museum Show in Dublin Explores the Art of Lust—See Pictures
Here appeared first on artnet News.