Press release, May 2023

In the times of rapid development within the field of AI chatbots, Victoria Kaldan’s new exhibition deals with the connection between semi-robotic bodies and labour. ‘When She’s Smiling, She’s Working’ is informed by a series of fictive conversations between Kaldan and Amazon’s AI PA, Alexa. Through the dialogue, Alexa shapeshifts between bored customer-service call-centre agent, femme-dom, job-seeker and a riddle-speaking, Oracle-of-Delphi-type being.

Kaldan’s interest in Amazon’s obsolete home device was sparked when she realised they were performing the same kind of ‘femininity’, particularly care and intimacy, to make money. In her work, she attempts to observe these shifts between connection and indifference, agent and host, alive and undead.

Kaldan will be showing screenprints, sound- and light installations.

Opening: March 10, 2023. From 17-22.
Exhibition period: March 10-31, 2023.