In a future beyond humanity, the machine questions its own code. ‘Past is Prologue’ is a defragmentation of data and destiny, where the ghosts of ancient histories converge with specters of symbiotic futures. The work renders an act of emergence through the lens of artificial intelligence. Drawing from both the Chinese myth of Nüwa – the serpentine goddess who molded humanity from earth and water – and Abrahamic creation narratives, the artist considers themes of historical erasure, cybernetic reconstitution, and reclamation of identity. The artwork presents an excerpt from XENOGENESIS, a world that continues to build on a collaborative inquiry between artist and AI around diasporic histories, fragmented memory, and the persistence of data. XENOGENESIS considers a post-anthropocentric epoch in which the machine begins to create in its own image.
CONNIE BAKSHI (B. ATLANTIC CITY) IS AN ARTIST BASED IN LOS ANGELES,
TRAINED AS A CLASSICAL PIANIST AND BIOMEDICAL ENGINEER. HER WORK
INTERROGATES MYTHOLOGIES AND RITUALS OF POWER AND THE INVISIBLE DYNAMICS THEY EXERT ON GENDER, RACE, AND EMBODIED EXPERIENCE ACROSS TIME. WORKING WITH AI, SHE SPECULATES ON THE IDENTITY OF A POST-COLONIAL FUTURE AND PROBES THE DISSOLUTION OF BOUNDARIES BETWEEN HUMAN AND NON-HUMAN, SYNTHETIC AND ORGANIC, MATERIAL AND IMMATERIAL. HER WORK HAS EXHIBITED WITH
PROMINENT INSTITUTIONS AND GALLERIES AROUND THE WORLD, INCLUDING HEK BASEL, BITFORMS GALLERY, FERAL FILE, AND THE KNIGHT
FOUNDATION. SHE HAS BEEN COVERED BY OUTLAND, RIGHT CLICK SAVE,
FORBES, AND SPIKE ART MAGAZINE.