Exhibitions
Rapture
16 May – 27 June 2024
This exhibition showcased a video by artist Andrea Khôra, titled RAPTURE, 2024. The video is an AI-infused fiction capturing the darker side of the current psychedelics start-up culture. The narrative anchor of this visually seductive piece is an interview between Ethan Grant, a CEO of a fictional psychedelic start-up TranscendX and Kate Thompson, the host of “Mystical Misadventure” podcast.
AI and a psychedelic experience are two key components of the visual language of the work. Although Khôra's inputs and AI’s outputs merge seamlessly, there is an impressive amount of artist’s labour and research poured into this piece. Khôra introduces the touchstones of the current psychedelic healing landscape and asks crucial ethical questions about the power relations within it. Through the character of Kate, she interrogates the use of Indigenous knowledge for profit and the wellbeing of patients in inherently hierarchical church-like congregations conceptualised by Ethan.
Besides the video, the exhibition at Blessed Foundation (now Autotelic Foundation) presented the research and process behind the piece bringing more attention to the complex work dynamic between the artist and AI.
RAPTURE by Andrea Khôra was commissioned and co-produced by KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; Blessed Foundation, London; and Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen.