Cyborg Hybrid
KC Adams – 2007
In Modern Fuel’s main gallery space, KC Adams presents a selection from her ongoing portrait series, CYBORG HYBRIDS, featuring digital prints of Euro-Aboriginal artists who are forward thinkers and plugged in with technology.
Adam’s work references Donna Haraway’s “Cyborg Manifesto,” which states that a cyborg is a creature in a technological, post-gender world free of traditional western stereotypes towards race and gender. Challenging the views towards mixed race classifications by using humorous text and imagery from two cultures, Adams photographs artists who fit the Cyborg Hybrid criteria in a manner slyly recalling early photographs of Aboriginal people as well as glamour shots in fashion magazines. Accessorized with white chokers and photographed in stoic poses, her subjects all wear white t-shirts that are beaded with slogans illustrating common Aboriginal stereotypes. The defiant poses of the Cyborg Hybrids challenge the viewer to classify their identity. Adam’s exhibition at Modern Fuel not only comprises portraits of people from the Manitoban cities of Winnipeg and Brandon, reflecting their regional situation, but also adds Kingston to the Cyborg Hybrid Nation.
About the Artist
KC Adams
A graduate of Concordia University’s Bachelor of Fine Arts’ program, Adams has had several solo exhibitions, most recently Cyborg Living at The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art in Toronto in September to November of 2005. She has also been featured in numerous group exhibitions, including a performance intervention called CAP at the Platform Gallery in Winnipeg in July 2005 and Cyborg Living Space II, The Language of Intercession at the OBORO Gallery in Montreal in February of 2005. She maintains her own website at www.kcadams.net showcasing her work and flash art projects. She has participated in residencies at the Banff Centre, the Confederation Art Centre in Charlottetown and the Annex Gallery in Winnipeg. Her many community activities include consulting for the creation of a National Aboriginal Art Gallery in Vancouver this year and serving as president of the Board of Directors of aceartinc. in Winnipeg from 2000 to 2004. She has received several grants and awards from Winnipeg Arts Council, Manitoba Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts.