Artworks

Hovnanian’s traveling apé truck, debuted in conjunction with her 2019 solo exhibition Open Secrets, features the artist’s proprietary phrase FMLMBD (F*** My Life, My Battery’s Dead). The apé travels around Tuscany, providing participants with free Wi-Fi and a phone charging station that doubles as a bench. The space is illuminated by Hovnanian’s neon work FMLNW (F*** My Life, No Wi-Fi). The apé is an S.O.S. for the SMS age. In the glow of this sentiment, visitors are asked to activate the charging station bench, marked with red crosses, by charging their “dying” digital devices. By transforming these acronyms into an occasion for viewers to enter a power relationship with digital technology, the work implies a tension between the fragility of life and the immortal nature of the digital revolution.