I ❤️ You

×

Expand

Kenzie Housego, “Emoji Bot,” 2023

embroidery, LEDs, Arduino micro-controller and textiles (photo by Charles Cousins, courtesy Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton)

Online flirtation is like walking a tightrope. Certain strings of emojis – 👋 🍑 😈 or 🎟 💃 👀 – could land you in something (think spankings and striptease) you didn’t expect, especially if you were born before 1990. Did you know, for instance, that those cute cartoons of fruit, flames and lips can have alternative and sometimes quite saucy meanings, somewhat the way prim Victorians used the unspoken language of flowers to transmit their deepest yearnings? 

Any Millennial or Gen Z-er will tell you dating sites are a popular first point of contact for lonely singles. This was the case for Calgary artist Kenzie Housego, who met her husband online. But on the way to true love she found that the digital dating world, while full of possibilities, also had pitfalls, including those pesky emojis. And if Housego, a Millennial, found them confusing, what does that mean for older people looking for love? 🤔

×

Expand

Kenzie Housego, “I ❤ U,”2023

installation view, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton (photo by Charles Cousins, courtesy Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton)

In her solo exhibition, I ❤️ You, at the Art Gallery of Alberta until Oct. 15, Housego explores the evolution of courtship rituals through multimedia works that blend traditional textile arts with digital technology. She started this body of work for her 2021 MFA thesis exhibition at the University of Calgary. It caught the eye of curator Lindsey Sharman, who invited Housego to create two new works, Hot Bot and Selfie Girls, for the Edmonton gallery’s emerging artist program.

The show is irresistibly playful with its flashing lights and bright emojis. Housego uses LEDs and Arduino micro-controllers, installed in collaboration with Victoria artist and engineer Gabrielle Odowichuk. Best of all, viewers can actually text some pieces – Emoji Bot, Hot Bot and Flirt Bot – which respond in real time via chatbots that interpret the texts and choose responses, whether 😊, 💞, 😉, 😈, 😖 or 🔥. Housego notes that Hot Bot is the sassiest, offering some decidedly naughty responses. When has an art show been this much fun? 

×

1 of 2

Expand

Kenzie Housego, “Selfie Guys,” 2021

embroidery, LEDs, Arduino micro-controller and textiles (photo by Charles Cousins, courtesy Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton)

×

2 of 2

Expand

Kenzie Housego, “Selfie Girls,” 2023

embroidery, LEDs, Arduino micro-controller and textiles (photo by Charles Cousins, courtesy Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton)

Prev

Next

As a textile artist who focuses on vintage material, Housego integrates aspects of historical embroidery and fabrics as material evidence of romantic rituals from bygone eras. She also references floriography – the study of the language of flowers – as a way of exploring the modes and meanings behind courtship.

The works in the show use large embroidery hoops as frames to display Housego’s research on the nuanced languages of love. These compositions feature stitched words associated with romance or heartbreak, floral patchwork designs reminiscent of those found on dainty handkerchiefs – historically, a means of secret communication between lovers – and flirty emojis like 🙈, 😍, 🔥 or 🙃. 

Whether this show points to the jarring differences or surprising similarities of courtship past and present, Housego’s experimental approach is refreshing. We will likely see more computer coding in conjunction with craft as young artists continue to combine digital and analogue methods.

Two charming works, Selfie Guys and Selfie Girls, illustrate actual people Housego found while studying online dating profiles. She embroidered the figures, who pose seductively with their cellphones, on toile that pictures lovers in olden times reposing in pastoral settings. But are Housego’s works a commentary on love or lust? Viewers will have to decide for themselves. ■

Kenzie Housego: I ❤️ You at the Art Gallery of Alberta in Edmonton from June 10 to Oct. 15, 2023.

PS: Worried you missed something? See previous Galleries West stories here or sign up for our free biweekly newsletter.