Anne Duk Hee Jordan on gaming, extreme weather and artificial stupidity

For her first solo exhibition in the US, Korean-German artist Anne Duk Hee Jordan has staged ‘I will always weather with you’ at The Bass in Miami, a large-scale multisensory exhibition using elements of humour, play and technology. It interrogates the relationship between humans and the environment amid the increasing challenges of climate change and invites visitors to immerse themselves in weather – an act of particular resonance in South Florida and Miami Beach, where storms and hurricanes impact communities with increasing frequency.

‘I will always weather with you’ is an atmospheric embodiment of the power of weather. Composed of three zones reflecting the earthly experience of land, water and air, the exhibition features video projections of ocean streams and meteorological data, mirrored walls, kinetic sculptures, soundscapes and robotics to explore the way machines are portrayed in popular culture, the media, television and science fiction.

Plaster spoke with the artist about walking on clouds, food can robots and studio chickens.

‘I will always weather with you’ is your first solo show in the US. What’s that been like for you? 

It’s very glamorous, very different to Europe. And with the art fair going on, the whole city is a bit insane.

Have you visited Miami before?

No, it’s my first time here.

How do you feel about exhibiting here?

It’s a lot of fun and the weather is great. There’s a nice atmosphere here at The Bass – the whole team is amazing. And obviously, there’s the beach, but I haven’t been there yet.

You should make time to go!

I would, but I’m flying back to Berlin tomorrow.

Speaking of Berlin, could you tell me about your studio there?

My studio is tiny, but it’s lovely. I have a huge garden – it’s like the extension of my brain. And because I’ve worked with sculpture and I like to experiment with materials, I started to build my own summer studio outside in the garden. I made it out of old found windows and wooden structures and it’s become a three-floor studio. I also have two chickens running around. I like being surrounded by nature.

Back to your Miami show. How did the concept come about and how did it evolve?

I’ve been working on the research and content for a few years now. I didn’t have a specific exhibition or installation idea until The Bass reached out to me last year wanting to do a show. I told them I was working on these ideas about storms and hurricanes, and we went from there. At that time I already had a title in mind for the show: ‘I will always weather with you’. I then started to develop the idea of making the exhibition into a world with a stratosphere where you could walk on clouds, touch the weather and see life from a bird’s eye view.

Can you describe what we’re seeing in the installation and how visitors can experience it? 

The critters that are moving around – the ‘artificial stupidity robots’ – all have a kind of symbolism. They are rolling cans that use LED lights and move around unpredictably. They resemble tumbleweeds rolling around the desert but are also like food cans. I wanted them to explore the idea of consumption: what we do, how we eat, how we digest.

Fiona was the last tropical storm here, which devastated Florida. I took apart images of her and reassembled her in a new form that I thought would be what Fiona would look like as a sculpture. The sculpture is made out of resin and resembles sugar slowly dissolving. The entire room is covered in mirrors, becoming an infinite space. The sculptures are standing on mirrors, so everything is upside down when you look up. You can also look into mirror clouds that reflect back on the floor, which is a collage made of different kinds of meteorological images. I wanted this to reference The Cloud – the technology we use for data storage, and to prompt viewers to think about our energy consumption.

The different elements in the exhibition reflect back and forth between our whole atmosphere and the whole environment. ‘I will always weather with you’ also means that we’re all in the same boat. We are surrounded by our environment, what we are doing what we are creating. Things bounce back and forth. We receive what we put out into the world.

With immersive and world-building exhibitions, I automatically think about video games. There have been lots of recent shows that draw on this, from artists like Lawrence Lek and Gabriel Massan. Have video games influenced you? 

I’m actually not a gamer at all. I’m a professor of digital media, so I have a lot of students who are really interested in video games. I try to push the boundaries of digital worlds, switching components around so that when you’re in a space you think you’re in a game. This was what I had in mind when I was developing the exhibition. We humans are the protagonists in this game and in this world. This is also why I wanted to incorporate a bird’s eye perspective into the exhibition. The floor projection forces you to look down, similar to how in the future, we would be looking back at the situation we’re in now. I wanted to create this infinity room as a kind of multiverse. It looks like a digital world, almost like something you’d view through VR glasses. I’m interested in creating immersive worlds. There are leaves made out of glass, the critters and robots are handmade and analogue running, and there’s a soundscape, so there’s also an emphasis on the physical aspects of this digital world.