In Paring Pairs, paired artists piece together timelines, evolutions, and dualities. The pairs are working together for the first time, beginning shared creative histories with their collaborations. Worlds collide in both the collaborative process and the themes explored: a plant becomes human, daydreams permeate reality, present emulates past. The works slice through personal and systemic barriers, cutting away the obscurity of time, space, and matter to reveal parallel evolutions and branching deviations.
In Leaves for Limbs by Cindy Qiu and Anika Rios, humans step into the dance of nature, tuning into the elements. In @TimewithThyme by Anya Ballantyne and Jafrin Uddin, a plastic plant influencer shares its daily life, joining traditionally human circles physically and virtually. In Changing Perspectives, Angela Bernabeo and Jessica Lian splice representations of the female figure with representation in computing to chronicle ongoing shifts in art and technology. In Discordant Harmony by Olivia Pan and Allison Lai, two lives develop in parallel and out of step, struggling to meet. In Intertwined by Nishat Farhana and Fariha Rahman, manipulated urban photography reveals an alternate, dreamlike NYC.
The “paring” in Paring Pairs focuses on fabrication rather than elimination. In their tumble through feedback loops, the collaborations pick up new corners and crannies, even as they are polished. It is a process of cutting the unexpected into the expected, interrupting the status quo to make space for questions. Paring Pairs invites you to cut into your assumptions and see what unfamiliar shapes reality can take.
—The New Media Artspace Docent Team: Anya Ballantyne, Angela Bernabeo, Maya Hilbert, Cindy Qiu, Anika Rios, Jafrin Uddin
Paring Pairs is a group exhibition curated by the New Media Artspace Docent Team: Anya Ballantyne, Angela Bernabeo, Maya Hilbert, Cindy Qiu, Anika Rios, and Jafrin Uddin. The exhibition was produced with support from Katherine Behar, Associate Professor in the Department of Fine and Performing Arts in the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences at Baruch College. The exhibition is made possible by support from the Baruch Computing and Technology Center (BCTC), the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences, and the Newman Library.