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On December 23, 2020, the artist Suhyun Choi’s laptop passed away. They realized that they had developed a racial-emotional affinity towards their personal tech devices, even though the manufacturing of such objects propagates techno-Orientalism – a theory which posits a dystopic technologically and economically dominant East that serves as an antagonist to the historically hegemonic and heroic West. The viralization of East-Asian bodies has been and is inherently connected to the West’s fear of the East in technological advancement, as technological prowess has equated to colonial and imperial brute strength.

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‘Ornamentalism’, a theory of Yellow feminist ontology articulated by Anne Anlin Cheng, further traces the haunting history of economic relationships between the West and the East producing the narrative of Yellow femininity as aesthetic embellishment and objecthood. Throughout histories of industrialization, the labor of producing technology has been racially coded—forwarding the stereotype of Yellow femme bodies as programmed and programmable, cold, object, unfeeling, productive, and laborious. Technology and labor have thus become the avenues for dehumanization and disposability. In an attempt to mitigate this, Choi proposes a humanizing relationship to technology as a means of humanizing Yellow femmes who are inherently read as objects. What would it mean if we changed our relationship to technology to one of care and humanity? Can the care for our objects decolonize technology? Read more on Recess Art's website.

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'Memorial for Laptop' Solo Exhibition at Recess Art

Date: 2023

Medium: Installation

Floral Installation Designer: Jaz Solana

Garment Designer: Euimi Amethyst Lee

Care Committee: Tsige Tafesse and seh-reum tom 

Art Handling: Kyle Ingram 

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