“Digital Diaspora: Futuristic Landscapes in Cyber Age” is an exhibition that explores the evolving relationship between humanity’s future in both physical and psychological realms, with social media and artificial intelligence serving as integral extensions of our existence.

The exhibit will be featured at the Santa Clarita Artists Association Gallery from June 7-16. The opening reception will be held Saturday June 8, from noon to 8 p.m., with artist’s talk at 5 p.m.

The gallery is located at 22508 6th Street in Santa Clarita.

This two-artist show features creators who came of age during the rise of the internet, their upbringing and cognitive processes deeply influenced by the digital world. Both artists investigate how digital landscapes and virtual realities shape our perceptions and interactions, blurring the lines between the real and the imagined. Their works reflect a profound engagement with the cybernetic present and future, inviting viewers to reconsider the impact of technology on our lives and consciousness. Through this exhibition, we journey into the intertwined realms of the physical and digital, exploring the vast, uncharted territories of our cybernetic future.

Through both traditional and new mediums, the exhibition explores the concept of a digital diaspora—a migration of human consciousness into the cyber realm. The works reflect on how this shift impacts identity, community, and the collective psyche. Takashi Horasaki (b.1974, Tokyo) examines the future through ceramics—one of mankind’s the oldest artistic media, recontextualizing the ancient art form of bonsai via exquisite craftsmanship and questioning the impact of social media on our cognitive functions with references to Instagram visuality. Horisaki’s work playfully draws on the rich heritage of Japanese ceramics, incorporating references to bonsai’s colonial history and its appropriation as a nationalist cultural symbol while using commercial glazes and retail display structures. By carrying forward these centuries-old mediums and reimagining their appearance with pixelated forms, bright colors, and tropical plants to reference Instagram’s visual aesthetics and hashtag culture, Horisaki’s work is both timeless and contemporary. Each bonsai pot is only colored on the front and completely left in its post-firing state on the back. It strikes as a testament to the artist’s vision of not only a future when the windows to the soul that are human eyes have fallen prey to social media feeds and their rapid consumption cycles, but also the histories of war and ecological ruin that lies behind the veil of these eye-candy-like objects.

Tiger Chengliang Cai (b. 1984, Shanghai, China) is a visual artist who engages new media in both visualaity and psychological concepts. He graduated from School of Visual Arts and has been working in New York since. His motif explores the outerspace with extraterreristal beings and psychedelic landscapes and dreamscapes in color and forms. The influences by surrealism and science fiction are observable with its eerie details of unseen danger. Cai creating pieces that simulate cognitive processes and emotional responses, questioning what it means to be of existence in an apolytical age where aliens take over our planet— or, have humanity transformed “Digital Diaspora: Futuristic Landscapes in Cyber Age”, organized by Ann Shi into extraterrestrial forms? His work invites viewers to engage with time not just as a linear scale, but as a binomials with unlimited possibilities.

“Digital Diaspora: Futuristic Landscapes in Cyber Age” invites you to step into a realm where the familiar is transformed by the digital, and where the future of humanity is imagined through the eyes of those who have or have not known the world through the internet. Both artists are diasporic in their individual physical journeys being born outside of the United States and migrated through continents, closing the loop of a diaspora in both physical and virtual worlds. Join us on this journey through time and space, as we explore the infinite possibilities of our cybernetic future.

“Digital Diaspora: Futuristic Landscapes in Cyber Age”, organized by Ann Shi

Artist’s Talk

Visitors are invited into the gallery to join the artist Tiger Chengliang Cai for a talk about his works on view and artistic practices at 5 p.m., June 8. Drinks and snacks are provided during the opening reception.

This is exhibition is organized by Ann Shi, independent curator based in Los Angeles and New York, and funded by a poco art collective.

Artists information can be found at:

Tiger Chengliang Cai https://www.tigerchengliangcai.com/

Takashi Horisaki http://takashihorisaki.com/

Any sale of artworks in the exhibition will contribute 35% towards Santa Clarita Artist Association, a 501(c)3 organization.

Visitor Information

The exhibit can be viewed at the SCAA Gallery during the following hours:

Friday, June 7: 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Saturday, June 8: 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. (Opening Reception)

Sunday, June 9: 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Friday, June 14: 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Saturday, June 15: 12 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Sunday, June 16: 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Address: 22508 6th St, Santa Clarita, CA 91321

Free parking available outside the gallery in the parking lot.