New Year’s Feast: Beijing 2014

In this installation, Hovnanian stages a celebratory meal that features family members ranging from young children to elder figures, all of whom are represented by vertical tablet screens that seemingly hover above every chair. Rather than the chatter of small talk, the audio plays only the notification sounds of various digital devices. The diners spend most of their time gazing downward. New Year’s Feast: Beijing 2014 speaks to both the alienation of smartphones and the new form of connection fostered by the internet. Internet culture is no longer a novel historical phenomenon; rather, the ubiquitous nature of its modes of transmission constitute the foundations of new creative thought.