Cuchifritos Gallery + Project Space is pleased to present Ecologies of Care, a solo show of recent works by Ani Liu, a former LES Studio Program resident, on view at 88 Essex Street from May 27 through July 30, 2022.

Interrogating the artist’s postpartum period, Ecologies of Care showcases a series of new works that use the material culture, and its aesthetics, of childcare –breastmilk, formula, diapers, toys, screen time–to reflect on the labor and life cycle of parenthood.

Echoing throughout the exhibition is the sound of a pump that circulates milk within the gallery space. Created as a material reference to the artist’s intimate experience with breastfeeding and pumping, the volume of milk present in Untitled (Pumping; Feeding Through Space and Time) ranges from the amount produced in a single session of feeding to a month’s supply of lactation.

Labor of Love provides a data portrait of the enormous amount of invisible labor that pervades caring for a newborn. Reflecting on the historic devaluation of “women’s” work, this sculpture questions and problematizes the types of work we value, and the care that we often take for granted.

Finally, a series of A.I. generated toys fuse the relationship between the construction of identity and instruments of play while exploring the cultural and psychological influences that inform caring for children. Created using a machine learning algorithm trained on real products marketed as “boys” and “girls” toys, these invented toys expose one source of the gendered social values that we place on children and critically ask how we might rewrite and redesign play.

Ani Liu is an internationally exhibiting research-based artist working at the intersection of art & science. Her work examines the reciprocal relationships between science, technology and their influence on human subjectivity, culture, and identity. Reoccurring themes in the work include gender politics, biopolitics, labor, reproduction, simulation and sexuality.