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Kenzie Housego

10_SENDNUDES_Kenzie Housego

ARTIST STATEMENT: 

Love it or hate it online dating uses unprecedented new technologies to connect potential romantic partners and theoretically enhance the chances of finding true love (if that is your goal).  

Online đź’• Intimacy explores contemporary courtship by investigating past and present modes of dating rituals. Combining textiles and technology this series probes the meaning of emojis, and texts while highlighting how romantic communication is transmitted, interpreted, and misinterpreted via screens.  

This series features technology such as LEDs, Arduino programing, and chatbots (simple trained artificial intelligence) to conduct real-time online communication. With textiles and embroidery Online đź’• Intimacy also employs historical imagery rooted in floriography, often referred to as the language of flowers, as a symbolic tactic to uncover changes between expectations and behaviours in courtship. For example, the rose is understood in western popular culture to be associated with romance. According to 1800’s floral dictionaries, a yellow rose connotes jealousy, a red rose represents true romantic love, and a blue rose signifies all that is unattainable. Mixing materials and symbols, Housego highlights the inter-relationship between technology and craft and the relationship between historical and contemporary courtship visual communication. 

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY:

Kenzie Housego recently completed an MFA specializing in new media at the University of Calgary, Mohkinstsis, Treaty 7 region southern Alberta. A multidisciplinary artist, her practice includes fiber, new media, sculpture, and assemblage mediums. The use of technology such as LEDs, micro-controllers, texting, and screens within her research is symbolic of the virtual realms in which we participate as a society. The virtual encompasses social media platform activity, online personas, online dating, and online branding. The digital world has become ubiquitous to communication, shaping contemporary society, particularly in relation to online representation.  

It's important to her that her artwork always offers an invitation for interactivity, encouraging viewers to shift from passive observers to active co-producers as they engage with the digital media, experience other points of view, and ultimately, form their own individual meanings.  

Housego currently lives and practices in Calgary, Alberta.