My Mother is Data

My Mother is Data by Ahreum Lee is exhibiting in The New Gallery’s Main Space from March 20 – May 2, 2026.

Opening reception: March 20th, 2026, from 7 to 9pm

My Mother is Data is an immersive installation exploring how relationships materialize when they are solely practiced in digital realms. Drawing from her own experience, artist Ahreum Lee entwines moving images, 3D animation, live-streamed text, and interactive web interface, noting her estrangement from her birth mother. After receiving false notification of her mother’s death in 2014, Lee considered the instability between reality and perception, and how they mirror contemporary digital life, where unrelated data can exist in the same scroll. In opposition to treating digital systems and their content as neutral materials, Lee intentionally considers data as emotional frameworks that construct intimacy, and supersede certainty. This work asks how emotional attachment and memory is restructured, especially when placed alongside global events within the digital realm.

As an interdisciplinary media artist, musician, game maker, and educator, Ahreum Lee navigates the complexities of technology, data, and socio-political narratives. Fascinated by the ritualistic use of everyday technologies, she explores their impact on socio-political dynamics and interactions with human and more-than-human entities. Her work spans games, 3D animation, web art, sound, and performance. Originally from Seoul, South Korea, Ahreum is currently based in Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montréal. She was a finalist for the Emerging Digital Artist Award by EQ Bank and Trinity Square Video (2019), and has participated in residencies at the Banff Art and Creativity Centre, Eastern Bloc, and Musée des beaux-arts à Montréal.

Accessibility Notes: https://thenewgallery.org/Accessibility

Image: My Mother is Data, Close-up image of installation, 2022, @Centre Clark. Image by Paul Litherland.