By Lily Essilfie

Onassis ONX, the Onassis Foundation’s platform for art and technology, rings in the New Year while also celebrating its fifth Anniversary with a new move. The exciting change in studio location from Midtown to Tribeca allows for both immersive and world-building artistry.

Alongside the new facilities, Onassis ONX anchors the foundation’s 2016 global theme on families by debuting TECHNE: Homecoming, a multimedia exhibition exploring the biological, mythological, and digital bonds created by the multifaceted landscape of identity and kinship.

On Thursday, January 8th, I had the honor of attending Onassis ONX’s inaugural exhibition, which features six talented revolutionary artists who have peerlessly blended art and technology to craft stories that relay the connectivity among humans, physiology, culture, and myths.

Once I reached the fourth floor of 390 Broadway, I was instantly engrossed in the various mediums adopted to create explosive installations that truly embody and delve into connection and collective constitution.

DamaraInglês, N’Zinga Mbondo

Inglês utilizes a perfect blend of color, light, and darkness to reimagine the afterlife of Queen Nzinga of Angola. The mystic and shadowy retelling emphasizes the powerful lore behind Angolan culture and the reclamation of their collective narrative in the face of colonial adversaries.

Through 3D, AI video generation, and augmented reality, Inglês depicts the significance of spirituality and resistance through the lens of “Cyber-Kimbadism,” a theoretical and aesthetic amalgamated structure involving vast Bantu cosmology and immersive technology.

Countries in Africa possess a deeply intricate and rich spiritual and cultural background, which, unfortunately, has been demonized by the Western world. Therefore, it is really wonderful to see an artist control the portrayal of their ethnology while futuristically fusing the past with the present.

Natalia Manta, MEMOS

History is not just a recount of the distant past—it is also our future, our people, and the makings of our society. When we think of history, it’s not only the big moments—it is also the matters that are overlooked.

Through looping animations, digital tombs, and hybrid sculptures, Manta establishes an otherworldly archeological realm, exposing forgotten antiquity overshadowed by larger players. Memos shed light on and in between the cracks and crevices where the disregarded still exist.

History is told from the point of view of the “winners,” namely, colonizers, dehumanizers, and imperialists who seek to neglect and distort the truth for their benefit. Memos push us to question the dominant point of view and what truly matters in the telling of history.

Tamiko Thiel, Atmos Sphaerae

Thiel, a pioneer in VR and AR art, captures Earth’s ever-changing elemental atmospheric makeup. Atmos Sphaerae traces the Earth’s atmosphere from the pre-Big Bang era to the Great Oxygenation Event that created life on this planet. It concludes by portraying humanity’s insatiable appetite for fossil fuels, which triggers the escape of greenhouse gases.

Both the cosmological and ecological components of this work poetically unite to traverse change on a molecular level. As the world shifts due to climate change caused by negligence and intense rapacity, installations like these are essential in waking up the masses to the weight of humanity’s caustic impact.

Sister Sylvester, Drinking Brecht

After sister sylvester, a multimedia artist, gained access to distinguished communist playwright Bertolt Brecht’s hat, she used microbiology and genetics to trace prospective former owners of the hat.

Drinking Brecht can be classified as an interactive documentary where visitors are taken on a forensic trip and can simulate the first biohacker experiment involving a drinkable cocktail.

Miriam Simun, Contact Zone Level 2

As I moved towards the back wall, I noticed a white curtain between the last two works I mentioned. Beside the curtain was a stack of papers with a lynx displayed in front. I soon learned that this was the script for Contact Zone, and behind the curtain was a generative, three-channel projection that renders two sites of rewilding— the Swiss Alps and Simun’s intestines.

Both sites are under the watchful gaze of AI, and computer-generated creatures captured by automated camera traps inhabit this animation. The delicate and complex relationship between organic and artificial life takes center stage. Through learning algorithms and ecological systems, Contact Zone monitors the symbiosis needed for restoration.

The use of sound and forest-like imagery transports the viewer to an environmental domain filled with mythological histories. Everything unfolds bewitchingly, on ecological timing and rhythm, undisturbed by technological advances.

Andrew Thomas Huang, The Deer of Nine Colors

Inspired by a Buddhist Folktale, Huang’s two-channel video and sculptural environment depicts a Thai trans woman on a journey retracing her past life as a deer to reclaim her true name.

The Deer of Nine Colors explores four major themes, broadening the concept of survival and reclamation: queerness, ancestry, extinction, and reincarnation. Watching the lead actress struggle to survive reminded me of the societal hardships trans women face to exist as themselves. Like the lead, trans women are hunted by a society attempting to deny them their humanity.

Becoming more of yourself frequently involves resistance—it is a battle to regain your identity. The main lead is like many of us who are made to forget our power, so existing oppressive systems can live on.

However, once the lead reclaims her name, she is liberated, free to be her whole self. She can stand in her power and remember who she truly is.

While highlighting the striking beauty and spiritual aspects of Thai culture, the choreography, cinematography, and elaborate storytelling breathe new life into a unique folktale.

Conclusion

Every artist unveiled resounding imaginative creativity with their works. Essentially, I walked away with an immense sense of kinship, connection, and a profound reverence for the world around me.