Tentacular Festival. Rindon Johnson & Aria Dean

When contemplating the now seeming inevitability of climate collapse, can we still access visions of possibility, thriving, and love? In the virtual reality work Meat Growers: A Love Story, a new commission for Tentacular 2019 co-produced with Rhizome, artist Rindon Johnson (US) imagines a near-future post-Climate Apocalypse world where matters of the heart still prevail among our chief concerns. Meat Growers centers on a fictional tale of love and longing between two coworkers in a meat growing plant, suggesting that even in the wake of ecological despair, the human spirit cannot be dampened. Johnson will be joined by Rhizome’s assistant curator Aria Dean, a formidable critic and artist in her own right.

Rindon Johnson is an artist and writer. He is the author of Nobody Sleeps Better Than White People (Inpatient Press, 2016), the virtual reality book, Meet in the Corner (Publishing-House.Me, 2017) and most recently, Shade the King (Capricious, 2017). Johnson’s writing and has been published by Artforum, Cultured, ICA Miami, The New Museum and Rhizome, among others. Johnson has performed at Artists Space (New York), MoMA PS1 (Queens, New York), Human Resources (Los Angeles) and The Poetry Project (New York) – among others. He lives in Berlin and is an Associate Fellow at the Universität der Künste Berlin, Centre for Advanced Studies in Arts and Sciences studying Media Art and Virtual Reality.

Aria Dean is a critic, artist, and curator, and the assistant curator of net art and digital culture at Rhizome. Her writings have appeared in various art publications including Artforum, e-flux, The New Inquiry, Art in America, and Topical Cream. Dean has exhibited internationally at venues such as Foxy Production and American Medium in New York, Chateau Shatto in Los Angeles, and Arcadia Missa in London. Dean also co-directs As It Stands LA, an artists project space that opened in 2015.

Rhizome drives digital art and culture through commissions, exhibitions, digital preservation programs and software development. Founded by artist Mark Tribe, the platform was born as one of the first directories of online artists. Rhizome has played a fundamental role in the history of contemporary art dedicated to digital technologies and the Internet. Since 2003, Rhizome is a resident affiliate of the New Museum, New York City.