Kristen Sanders was born in California in 1989. She now lives and works in St Paul, Minnesota. This is the gallery’s first solo exhibition of her work and as the show’s title suggests, she points her inquiry into the crux of what makes us human; imagining a moment of first consciousness of a hypothetical early human ancestor. Since 2015 her work has been circling between the extreme past of hominids millions of years ago – and the increasingly closer future of robots with super-human powers and artificial intelligence.
Sanders’ fascination lies within the threshold of self-invention distinguishing the human from both the animal and the animatronic. She considers that behavioral aspects such as making a mark, or the first non-utilitarian artwork, should be seen in terms of evolutionary lineage. By considering these defining moments for the pre-human, we can then reframe the post-human, negotiating our current unease with AI and its possible outpacing of the human body – arriving at a post-body consciousness.