Carla Gannis: Embodied Algorithms

Who am I? A question that's hard enough on its own. But in our digital age, the challenge levels up. The self doesn’t just exist — it updates, glitches, transforms. Dare to question yourself? You’re in the right place. As this solo show of Carla Gannis grants you a shift of perspective. Famous for her fearless experimentation, Carla dives deep into the dualities that define our lives in these hyperconnected times. Body–mind, self–other, reality–fantasy, analog–digital — these tensions drive her work, becoming a live stream of human experience in the post-digital age. Blurring the lines between physical and virtual, art history and fiction, Carla Gannis uses humor to open deeper questions about meaning and identity. Identity, suddenly, is anything but fixed — making her solo show the perfect opening for CIFRA’s new season: Any Body Knows. Through her lens, the digitized body becomes both relic and revelation: what consumes the mind, what’s trapped inside the skin. As algorithms evolve lives of their own, she asks us to rethink what it means to have — or be — a body, when so much of our existence unfolds inside invisible feeds. Ready to zoom into Embodied Algorithms? Here’s your quick guide to this exhibition: each emoji acts as a riddle — and as a comforting hello from daily life. But linger a little longer, and their double meanings will start to reveal themselves. CathexisCore: Flag Fire, Flower 🌸🌺🎭 Masks we change, things we mask — today’s flow expects us to have digital alter egos. The self replicates, becoming more and more fluid until, eventually... we are one with the feed we’re feeding. Am I the Machine? Am I the Home? 👤📟📼🏠 Every body is a home for somebody. Human biology offers us a temporary settlement that lasts one life. But if you are a machine — who, or what, are you hosting? Virtues and Vices: Voices from the wwwunderkammer 🌐⚖️🤖 If there were an AI personality that mirrored the best and worst in you, it would basically be you — just living behind the screen. Right? Hmm, not 100%. AI can dream and get delusional. So sometimes, the portraits can go a little… out of hand. The Elevated Line 🚶‍♀️🚶‍♀️🚶‍♀️ Cyborg walks the High Line in New York. This casual happiness is now available for all forms of life, including virtual ones. Why not? If we can record it and explain it — digital someone will enjoy it too. Origins of the Universe 📱🎇💥 Where has it all started? Once, Gustave Courbet gave a very bold answer. But in a world where every day we reset our consciousness through the scroll, a digital womb feels even more efficient. Still scandalous, right? Until the End of the World 😄💊💰🪕 Everybody in every body gets scared of the inevitable end. But in the year 2525, if someone’s still alive, they'll see that apocalyptic plots never really change. Turns out, both the Matrix and Star Wars were right. Portraits in Landscape 👩‍🦱🖼 🌽 🥒 🍇 They say you are what you eat. Archimboldo already explored that literally—and now Gannis stretches the idea through technology and social media, using emojis to fill in the face of identity. A Subject Self Defined 👩‍🎨 🤳📸 Not just his muse — but the artist herself. Gentileschi, Kahlo, and Sherman used self-portraits to reclaim the gaze — and Gannis does the same. Working across media, she brings the question of self-definition into the world of selfies, personal branding, and social media exchanges. The Garden of Emoji Delights 🌳🌏😍 Bosch painted a whole universe of dreams, fears, and fantasies 500 years ago. Gannis reimagines it with emojis — today’s digital language — mashing up old and new symbols into a strange, joyous nonsense/sense of our era. <legend> </legend> ✍️✏️🎨 What if the meaning is something you have to complete yourself? This collaboration with poet Justin Petropoulos redraws myths and earth theories into digital animations, drawings, and evolving sculptures. An empty HTML tag becomes a whole map of imagination. Runaways 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️ Who wins the race — the real body or the super-self? Survival, embodiment, and the slippery line between our natural and virtual selves… we know the questions we’re running from. Maybe the race never ends. Maybe we don’t care about winning. Jezebel 👑💃🎭 Can one woman hold five archetypes at once? Jezebel — villain, rebel, goddess, outsider, muse — moves through layered, surreal spaces. Carla Gannis rewrites myth and stereotype into a lush dreamscape where femininity resists all easy labels. Sister Gemini 👯‍♀️🤖🎶👩‍🎤 Meet Sister Gemini, Carla’s early avatar: half-human, half-AI. She’s been hacking websites and hearts since 1998 — and she might just resurface again when you least expect it. James Bond 🕵️‍♂️🕶️🔫🍸 Icon, myth, fantasy. 007 gets digitized. Playful, savvy, top-secret — the agent doesn’t show his face. He’s just the ideal boy toy, the serial heartbreaker. Feel the twist? Yes—she takes the lead. Sorry, Mr. Bond, the girl’s not getting sidelined.