Mattering

Like an air control system mistaking a flock of birds for a fleet of bombers, software is unable to distinguish between its model of the world and reality – and, once conditioned, neither are we...1

In her solo exhibition, on view from February 12 – March 15, 2023, Yiyao Tang (b. 1996, Wenzhou, China) investigates nature, technology, and the computational logics embedded within. Inspired by its many uses, Tang uses machine learning to interrogate systems of classification of the natural world, namely the logic of the herbarium: a collection of plant specimens preserved for scientific study.

Digitally-grafted plants form a central motif in Tang’s work. In Mattering, now-extinct plant species preserved in the Harvard University Herbaria are grafted through the artist’s machine learning algorithm to take on new life, then 3D-printed as fossils. In an accompanying video, Tang draws our attention to the vitality plants once possessed before they were picked, processed, and preserved. The exhibition’s two-dimensional works, including “Last known living individual of liliwai, late 90’s” and “Small tree lost to habitat loss, date needs updating”, document the variety of plant geometries she would later transform into her aforementioned fossils. “Mattering” refers to that which is formless and which, as the subject of change and development, receives form and becomes matter. What is it that permeates our minds and forms our perceptions so that we may see that which is yet recognizable?

Artist

Yiyao Tang is an artist working across mediums of video, projection, and installation to explore how social and political systems are embedded within images and objects. She holds an MA from Harvard University and BFA from Pratt Institute.

Curator

Anthony Terzino is an artist and curator based in New York City. His work has shown at Swiss Institute Rome, Accademia di Brera Milan, Associazione Culturale Prato, and Center for the Arts Boston among others.