Mithu Sen challenges her audiences to explore the in-between spaces of social conventions and interactions. She uses poetry, drawing, objects, text and performance to investigate social behaviour. Sen’s works question and dodge meaning, and with a playful humour, she creates new possibilities of communication, and employs symbolic and linguistic devices, such as ‘(un)’, to explore social exchange. The artist describes her ongoing UnMYthU project as a ‘byproduct of twenty years of performance’ that draws on her career of making and sharing art.

Mithu Sen, India b.1971 / UnMYthU: UnKIND(s) Alternatives Performance / 24 November 2018, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane / Live performance with Alexa device / Commissioned for ‘The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT9) / Courtesy: The artist and Gallery Chemould, Mumbai / © Mithu Sen

For ‘The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT9), Sen created a series of large-scale drawings on handmade Kozo paper. These drawings are accompanied by diagrams, recorded performances and instructions that pose directions, questions, contracts and obligations for the audience. Like using ‘(un)’ as a device to open alternate understandings, in a similar manner, Sen explores concepts of artificial intelligence, experimenting with new identities beyond human logic.

UnMYthU: UnKIND(s) Alternatives (un)myths through the trope of A(I) – artificial intelligence – which (un)creates to allow for access and actualisation of the void where I locate the medium of life. The tactile byproducts that are exhibited and the performance taking place by each entity engaging with the installation are both creations of A(I). The pristine surface layer of the painted paper and the words and numbers floating around the surface together create the space of inbetweeness – a void – where the (un)mything takes place.

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‘The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT9) profiled artworks by more than 80 artists, groups and projects from over 30 countries, and is presented across the Queensland Art Gallery and the Gallery of Modern Art from 24 November 2018 until 28 April 2019.

APT9 has been assisted by our Founding Supporter Queensland Government and Principal Partner the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, and the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments.

Feature image detail: Mithu Sen’s UnMYthU: UnKIND(s) Alternatives Performance
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