News

4 June 2022

Worldbuilding: Gaming and Art in the Digital Age

Curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist to celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of the JULIA STOSCHEK COLLECTION, the group exhibition WORLDBUILDING: Gaming and Art in the Digital Age opens in Düsseldorf this June.

WORLDBUILDING examines the relationship between gaming and time-based media art with a journey through various ways in which artists have interacted with video games and made them into an art form. In the words of the curator Hans Ulrich Obrist: “In 2021 2.8 billion people—almost a third of the world’s population—played video games, making a niche pastime into the biggest mass phenomenon of our time. Many people spend hours every day in a parallel world and live a multitude of different lives. Video games are to the twenty-first century what movies were to the twentieth century and novels to the nineteenth century.”

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS: Larry Achiampong & David Blandy, Peggy Ahwesh, Rebecca Allen, Cory Arcangel, Ed Atkins, LaTurbo Avedon, Balenciaga, Meriem Bennani, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, Cao Fei, Ian Cheng, Harun Farocki, Basmah Felemban, Ed Fornieles, Sarah Friend, The Institute of Queer Ecology, JODI, Rindon Johnson, KAWS, Keiken, Kim Heecheon, Lawrence Lek, LuYang, Gabriel Massan, Lual Mayen, Sondra Perry, Jacolby Satterwhite, Frances Stark, Jakob Kudsk Steensen, STURTEVANT, Transmoderna, Suzanne Treister, Theo Triantafyllidis, Angela Washko, Thomas Webb
More details︎︎︎

10 September 2021

Future Shock at 180 The Strand, London

“Blurring boundaries between the physical and virtual, 180 Studios and Fact present an exhibition by pioneering artists at the apex of sound and vision who are imagining the new world of space.”

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS: Ryoichi Kurokawa, UVA, Caterina Barbieri and Ruben Spini, Lawrence Lek, Actual Objects, Gener8ion, Weirdcore, Gaika, Nonotak, Ben Kelly, Hamill Industries, Ib Kamara, Ibby Njoya, Object Blue and Natalia Podgorska

More details︎︎︎

10 September 2021

Grand Prix, 4th VH Award 2021

“Hyundai Motor Group (the Group) has announced artist Lawrence Lek as the Grand Prix winner of the 4th VH AWARD, an biennial event organized by the Group to discover and support emerging new media artists of different Asian backgrounds.

Lek’s 4th VH AWARD Grand-Prix-winning work, titled Black Cloud, is the culmination of the London-based artist’s ongoing body of virtual-reality productions. Through his VR renderings, Lek, who is of Malaysian-Chinese descent, opens up inquiries into the “geopolitical” implications of artificial intelligence and illuminates the various links between AI and art—particularly the ways in which the different societal attitudes toward AI control peoples’ values, lifestyles and modes of operation around the world.”

PARTICIPATING FINALISTS: Lawrence Lek (MY/UK); Doreen Chan (HK); Paribartana Mohanty (IN); Jungwon Seo (KR); and Syaura Qotrunadha (ID).

More details︎︎︎

10 September 2021

34th Ljubljana Biennale: Iskra Delta

“Iskra Delta was a name of a computer company from Slovenia and one of the largest computer manufacturers in Yugoslavia, which had the potential to become a major player in the global market before the breakup of the country...

In a time haunted by the specters of "lost futures" the biennale harnesses the desire to inhabit a reality different from the one we inherited. Against a backdrop of social and environmental unrest, deep in the pandemic that has fixed our bodies in place and our eyes on screens, Iskra Delta returns from the future to provide a spark for imagining and constructing alternative presents.”

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS: Hamja Ahsan, John Akomfrah, Astrosuka, BCAA system, Joshua Citarella, Simon Denny, Diffractions Collective, Digitonica, Drone Emoji, Aleksandra Domanović, Fallwinter, Mark Fridvalszki, Galen Tipton, Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze, Himera, Joey Holder, INSIDE JOB (Ula Lucińska & Michał Knychaus), Interdependence (Holly Herndon & Mat Dryhurst), Jakub Jansa, Kristjan Kaluža, Jure Kastelic, Zsófia Keresztes, Botond Keresztesi, Princess Ketamine, Kiss the Future, Kladnik & Neon, Kukla Kešerović, Luka Lavrenci, Lawrence Lek, Mario Mu, Nascent (Paul Seidler and Max Hampshire), Nimaš Izbire, Katja Novitskova, OMSK Social Club, Other Internet (Toby Shorin, Laura Lotti, Sam Hart), Marko Peljhan, Protektorama (aLifveForm, fed and cared for by JP Raether), Jon Rafman, Živa Božičnik Rebec, Alex Selmeci & Tomáš Kocka Jusko, Petal Supply, Stach Szumski, Dorijan Šiško, Andrej Škufca, ŠUM, T+U (Technologie und das Unheimliche), Toiret Status, Liara T’soni, Torus, Miloš Trakilović, Suzanne Treister, Umru, Toyota Vangelis, Jelena Viskovic, Warrego Valles, Neja Zorzut

More details︎︎︎

10 APRIL 2021

MIT Wasserman Forum 2021: Another World

Annual symposium on art and technology, this year focusing on artists engaged with the politics and practices of virtual worlds.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS: Salome Asega, Rindon Johnson, Lawrence Lek, American Artist, Lauren Lee McCarthy, Hito Steyerl

Watch here︎︎︎

1 APRIL 2021

Transfer Gallery: Pieces of Me

A group show exhibiting new digital editions, in collaboration with left.gallery.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS: aaajiao,Morehshin Allahyari, Serwah Attafuah, Stacie Ant, LaTurbo Avedon, Zach Blas, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, Shamus Clisset, Harm van den Dorpel, Francoise Gamma Carla Gannis, Julieta Gil, Claudia Hart, Auriea Harvey, Faith Holland, E. Jane, Huntrezz Janos, Isaac Kariuki, Casey Kauffmann, Keiken & obso1337, Wednesday Kim, Ryan Kuo, Kim Laughton, Lawrence Lek, Kristin Lucas, Sara Ludy, Kumbirai Makumbe, Claudia Maté, LaJuné McMillian, Cassie McQuater, Rosa Menkman, Lorna Mills, Marisa Olson, Eva Papamargariti, Pussykrew, RaFia, Tiare Ribeaux & Jody Stillwater, Olivia McKayla Ross, Mark Sabb & Devon Moore, Alfredo Salazar-Caro, Sydney Shavers, Rick Silva, Travess Smalley, Molly Soda, Olia Svetlanova, Theo Triantafyllidis, Krist Wood, Qianqian Ye, Alice Yuan Zhang

More details︎︎︎

19 MARCH - 19 APRIL 2021

Pyramid Schemes at the Guggenheim Museum: In Between Days

My 2018 video essay on virtual architecture will be screening at the Guggenheim Museum Rotunda daily.

FEATURING WORKS BY: Meriem Bennani, Ali Cherri, Shezad Dawood, Sky Hopinka, Steffani Jemison,Jesper Just, Liz Magic Laser and Simone Leigh in collaboration with Alicia Hall Moran, Lawrence Lek, Beatriz Santiago Muñoz, and Lucy Raven.

More details︎︎︎

17 MARCH 2021

Interdependence Podcast with Holly Herndon & Mat Dryhurst

Had a great chat about working with new forms of creative economy, attempting to work with AI, and the potential of encrypting the narratives of art...

Listen here︎︎︎

13 MARCH - 21 APRIL 2021

BANK Shanghai, Tri-solo show

I’ll be exhibiting AIDOL in Shanghai at BANK alongside Nik Kosmas and Tim Crowley.

More details here︎︎︎

20 FEB 2021

TEMPLE (Walkthrough) at System Restart - 4:3 Film Festival

I’m showing a first-person walkthrough performance of the abandoned nightclub Temple on Boiler Room’s film platform, 4:3.

FEATURING: Lawrence Lek’s Virtual Club, Slikback x Weirdcore: Void; Goldie x Shy One; John Akomfrah’s ‘Goldie: When Saturn Returns’; ‘I’m the Slime’, Alex Bag & Charlie Fox’s TV Freakout; Jenn Nkiru & Leilah Weinraub.

More details here︎︎︎

21 JANUARY 2021

Resident Advisor - Exchange Interview Podcast - EX.542

“The artist, filmmaker, and musician Lawrence Lek creates uncanny, speculative worlds deeply altered by technology. His creations vary from simulated environments to dystopian Brexit simulators, conspiracy theory video essays to AI coming-of-age tales, and site-specific video games.”

Listen here︎︎︎

12 JANUARY 2021

It’s Nice That - Interview with Jyni Ong

Talking about Malaysian jungles, simulation art and my ‘interest in the ambiguity between paradoxes’

Read here︎︎︎

3 DECEMBER 2020

The Quietus - Review - Sci-Fi Lullabies: Lawrence Lek's AIDOL 爱道 OST

‘A futuristic soundtrack to a science fiction fever dream gives visual artist and musician Lawrence Lek a wide canvas for his sonic world-building, finds Kareem Ghezawi‘

Read the review here︎︎︎

27 NOVEMBER 2020

AIDOL OST - Out now on Hyperdub

The soundtrack for AIDOL is out now on Hyperdub on Vinyl and limited edition USB.
The record features new lovingly-rendered covers and four single-sided art prints of scenes from the film.

Purchase here︎︎︎

Review by Andrew Ryce at Resident Advisor︎︎︎

26 OCTOBER 2020

‘The Sinofuturist Trilogy’ - Talk at Berkeley Center for New Media

Together with Abigail de Kosnik, I discuss the worldbuilding and ideas behind the trilogy of films Sinofuturism (1839-2046 AD), Geomancer, and AIDOL.

Watch and read more here︎︎︎

10 OCTOBER 2020

Unsound 2020 x FACT

For the online edition of the Krakow-based experimental music and art festival, I’ll be presenting AIDOL (Live), a special walkthrough edition of the CGI film.

Unsound 2020 programme ︎︎︎

22 MAY 2020

Temple OST - Out now on The Vinyl Factory

The soundtrack to my installation at 180 The Strand is out now. The album is accompanied by music videos for all the tracks, created from the virtual world of the exhibition.

Purchase here︎︎︎

20 MARCH 2020

iD Magazine - Interview with Mahoro Seward

In advance of the launch of the Temple soundtrack, I discuss the how the contemporary influencer economy relates to AI and simulation worldbuilding.

Read here︎︎︎

Works