Artificial intelligence, mushroom spores and peanut butter: on Anicka Yi’s unique brand of science-infused conceptualism

Korean American artist Anicka Yi (born 1971) creates sculptures and installations that subvert the concepts of natural and synthetic, generating hybrid and symbiotic entities through the employment of the bacteria and technological devices in her work. Yi has collaborated with a range of professionals, including engineers, chemists and other scientists, with whom she carries out ambitious projects aimed at investigating new possibilities of exchange and interaction between living organisms and artificial intelligence.
Metaspore is the most extensive monograph ever devoted to the artist, published to coincide with her solo exhibition of the same name at Pirelli HangarBicocca in Milan. The volume examines her practice in detail, presenting a wide selection of installations created by Yi from 2010 to now. The catalog includes photographic documentation of the exhibition along with critical essays and thematic analyses.

Visual artist(s): Anicka Yi
Text by: Merlin Sheldrake, Rachel Lee