Anicka Yi's Turbine Hall commission opens at Tate Modern amid reflections on biology and culture

Anicka Yi's largest project to date, the Hyundai Commission, opens at Tate Modern's Turbine Hall in London from October 12 to January 16. Known for integrating scent, olfaction, and living microorganisms, Yi has collaborated extensively with biologists and technologists, including during a multiyear residency at MIT. Her early 2010s works in New York, such as Sister (2011) at 47 Canal, combined perishable organic materials with autobiographical themes, blending humor and cerebral engagement. Yi discusses how the pandemic shifted her approach toward balance and rest, moving away from a focus on knowledge production. She expresses skepticism toward culture, viewing it as perpetuating nationalism and racism, and instead seeks nonconceptual spaces akin to quantum mechanics. Yi emphasizes human vulnerability and interdependence, noting that viruses regulate biodiversity despite not being technically alive. The artist works from a compound in upstate New York, where she reflects on coexistence with animals and the fragility of human existence. She questions attachment to survival, suggesting artificial intelligence is part of evolutionary processes. Yi aims to appreciate existence without value judgments, paralleling her practice with quantum physics to explore absolute reality beyond cultural narratives.