A still from Mimi Ọnụọha’s 2021 project “These Networks in Our Skin.” Credit: Courtesy of Ọnụọha
Students will have the opportunity to meet the artist behind the citywide exhibition, “What Is Missing Is Still There,” Thursday at the Wexner Center for the Arts.
Mimi Ọnụọha, a Nigerian American artist whose exhibitions have been on view in Columbus since August, will visit the Wex at 4:30 p.m. Thursday in the Film/Video Theater for a conversation with Simone Browne, an associate professor of African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.
The discussion will focus on the risks and power of using artificial intelligence for data gathering, along with other themes present in Ọnụọha’s work, according to the Wex’s website.
Ọnụọha will also premiere a new piece of artwork she is developing, said Jennifer Lange, director of the Film/Video Studio at the Wex. She said the event will be an opportunity for students to learn how Ọnụọha’s ideas and themes manifest in her work.
“I feel deeply honored,” Ọnụọha said. “Any kind of deep, good faith engagement is priceless. Even if that engagement is someone saying, ‘I didn’t get this,’ or ‘Why did you make that choice?’ That’s fantastic. All of it.”
The second panelist, Browne, is a scholar in surveillance studies and the author of “Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness,” which explores how contemporary technologies of surveillance connect to slavery and the Black experience, Kris Paulsen, organizer of Ọnụọha’s exhibition and an associate professor of history of art, said in an email.
Ọnụọha said she recommended Browne for the conversation because of her expertise in surveillance and how deeply she understands the sociological and anthropological elements in Ọnụọha’s work. Browne is also a board member of A People’s Guide to Tech, an artist-led organization that creates educational material about technology, which Ọnụọha co-founded.
Ọnụọha said she and Browne will discuss the experience of creating work centered on technology, the themes that shape her work and how time can influence the interpretation of art.
“A piece that’s made in 2016 or 2019 will read very differently in 2025, and that window of how it reads differently is shorter, I think, for works that embrace a kind of perspective that includes tech,” Ọnụọha said.
Ọnụọha said she connects with Browne’s work through many avenues — their shared Black identity, her interest in systems and technology — all of which regularly appear in both of their work. They will discuss how systems of organizing people, and the lack thereof, can influence identity, she said.
“I think that anybody who makes work, you make it from your own perspective, your own lens,” Ọnụọha said. “That’s one of the things it means to be an artist.”
To engage with students, the format of the panel will include a Q&A session and Ọnụọha said she will also visit classrooms during her trip.
“I think it’s always really valuable for students, the public and anyone to come and have a chance to hear an artist talk about her work and her ideas in her own words,” Lange said.
Ọnụọha said there are many ways of engaging with and interpreting her artwork, and the panel serves as a gift for her and the audience to gain a deeper understanding of her work.
“I’m not really prescriptive,” Ọnụọha said. “I think there are different ways to come into any kind of piece. People will bring their own meanings to it.”
Ọnụọha said she hopes the audience will learn more about the different approaches people can take toward one subject.
“There are many different forms of deep inquiry in the world, not simply what happens at the university, not simply what happens in a white paper, but there are many spaces where you can practice a form of deep and considered inquiry and sense making,” Ọnụọha said. “That is one thing I think would be wonderful for students to take away.”
Browne will also give a keynote talk at noon Friday at the WOSU Ross Community Studio about her research, Paulsen said. According to the Ohio State Global Arts and Humanities website, the talk is part of the event series “Artificial Intelligence: Propositions from the Arts + Humanities.”
Ọnụọha will also be in attendance at the keynote.
Both events are free and open to students and the public, though registration is required. Registration for the panel discussion is available on the Wexner Center’s website, and registration for Browne’s keynote can be found on the Ohio State Global Arts and Humanities website.
