Mimi Ọnụọha’s “Us, Aggregated 3.0” is on display at the Wexner Center for the Arts through Jan. 11. Credit: Izza Haq | Arts & Life Producer

Without paying attention, it’s possible to miss the works of Mimi Ọnụọha that will appear across Columbus during the coming months. 

The Nigerian American artist’s exhibition will run throughout the city and includes parts of her recent work, “What Is Missing Is Still There,” which is a collection of her projects from the last six years, according to the Arts at Ohio State website. Her video works will be displayed at the Wexner Center for the Arts and the Columbus Museum of Art. 

Ọnụọha’s art will also show up on screens in several buildings on campus, bus stop kiosks, as well as promotional billboards across the city, Kris Paulsen, organizer of the exhibition and associate professor of history of art, said in an email. 

Paulsen said Ọnụọha’s work examines how data shapes our lives, particularly highlighting how Black and Brown communities are underrepresented or excluded. She hopes the art prompts reflection on who collects data from users and what they use it for.

“It is always difficult to manage multiple sites and partners,” Paulsen said. “We are very lucky to have such a supportive community and to have so many partners that are eager to support [Ọnụọha’s] work.”

The exhibition has been in the works for years, and although it was hard to pull off an exhibition as extensive as this one, Paulsen said it was worth it. 

“It’s like a fun detective project to try and see all the different manifestations around campus and the city,” Jennifer Lange, director of the Film/Video Studio at the Wexner Center for the Arts, said.

Wexner Center for the Arts

According to its website, the Wex will showcase a video titled “Us, Aggregated 3.0,” which will play on loop at its video installation space, The Box. The display began Aug. 22 and will run through Jan. 11.

The work compares the artist’s family photos with images sourced through Google’s reverse-image search, presenting a sequence of related pictures, Lange said. She said although the piece is simple, it exposes the pros and cons of AI and explores how computer algorithms and data shape people. 

“This sense of identity and how people are categorized… I think the piece is trying to argue [it’s] more complicated than an algorithm alone could point to or explain,” Lange said.

Lange said Ọnụọha’s installation fits in with the rest of the current exhibitions on rotation at the center. She said there are currently four artists on display from around the world whose work represents identity — specifically regarding the African diaspora — through various materials.

Columbus Museum of Art

The CMA will showcase another of Ọnụọha’s works, “These Networks in Our Skin,” which shows four women replacing internet cables with hair and spices, according to the museum’s website. It began to play at the Mary and Bob Kidder Video Space Aug. 23 and will end Sept. 28.

Rae Root, the Roy Lichtenstein curatorial fellow at the museum, helped with the piece’s installation and wrote the text description. She said although the work had many interesting technological aspects, the setup of the installation was fairly standard for the museum.

“People will really connect with the video, it’s very charismatic,” Root said. “There’s really interesting music and a lot of movement. I would hope that people would think critically about technology, their relationship to it and the sort of material ramifications and impacts of global network technologies.”

Lydia Simon, the director of marketing and communications at the museum, said the installation is included in the general admission fee, and she hopes people will stop by during their visit.

Simon and Root both said they expect, and are interested to see, more film and digital installations at the CMA in the near future.

Ohio State and Orange Barrel Media Screens

Paulsen said Ọnụọha’s works — “Machine Sees More Than It Says” and “The Future is Here!” — will be displayed at the following buildings: Pomerene Hall, the Theatre, Film, and Media Arts Building, Knowlton Hall, Sullivant Hall and Hopkins Hall. 

Excerpts from “40% of Food in the US is Wasted (How the Hell is That Progress, Man?)” will also appear on Orange Barrel Media’s interactive IKE screens — which “activate the pedestrian experience with dynamic hyper-local content and wayfinding features that drive discovery, mobility, and equity,” according to OBM’s website — across the city. 

“We hope that seeing the works disrupt[s] their regular information flows, piques student interest and prompts them to seek out more — to dig up information the way Ọnụọha does,” Paulsen said. 

Lange said the pop-up style of the art on the monitors makes it seem like a glitch. 

“You might just be walking around and then you see — all of a sudden — it looks like ‘Wait, what’s going on with the system? What’s going on with this computer or this monitor? It’s getting taken over by some third-party,’ and it’s [Ọnụọha’s] video ‘Machine Sees More Than It Says,’” Lange said.

Lange said she hopes the pop-up screens will encourage students and community members to visit the installation at the Wex. She said each pop-up video includes a QR code with more information about the artist and her exhibits.

“[Ọnụọha’s] work has different ways of appearing in the world,” Lange said. “[Paulsen] did an amazing job of identifying places on campus.”

On Oct. 9, Ọnụọha will visit the Wex for a conversation with Dr. Simone Browne, an associate professor of African and African diaspora studies at University of Texas at Austin, about the risks and power of using AI for data gathering. 

Ọnụọha will also premiere a new piece she is developing, Lange said. Registration is required and can be done on the Wex’s website. 

“I think it’s really interesting for students to hear firsthand from an artist about their process,” Lange said. “Our forums, here at least, are so casual and inviting of any questions and I think that’s a beautiful thing.”

More details about the exhibitions and talk can be found on the Arts at Ohio State website.

 

This story was updated Thursday, Sept. 25 at 10 a.m. to correct the abbreviation of  the Columbus Museum of Art.