Tara Kelton – Yes My Wish
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Tara Kelton is an Indian-American artist based in Bangalore, India. Tara’s work considers the traditional figure of the artist (and craftsperson) in relation to the digital. Working in a variety of media she reflects on the diminishing role of the human in contemporary society (replaced by automation, AI and digital mediation) and the remote algorithmic control of labour by western bodies and corporations. Tara is co-editor of the publishing series Silicon Plateau, an art project and publishing series that explores the intersection of technology, culture and society in Bangalore.
Tara has exhibited internationally at the ZKM Karlsruhe; ICA Singapore; Queens Museum of Art; Vox Populi; Franklin Street Works; GallerySKE; Clark House Initiative; The Centre for Internet and Society; New Digital Art Biennale; or-bits.com; and the Kochi Muziris Biennale. Her work has appeared in Artforum, ID Magazine, rhizome.org, Platform Magazine, Arts Illustrated, Vogue, and Shifter. She received her BFA from Parsons the New School for Design and her MFA from the Yale University School of Art.
Yes My Wish is an Indian religious website that promises to “grant any wish you desire” within 90-180 days, with a money-back guarantee.
In Yes My Wish, Tara purchased “I wish to be a famous person” from the website. The work looks at how India’s religious industry manifests online, using a tongue-in-cheek gesture that challenges its false promises. In „wishing to be famous“ the work also humorously nods towards the arbitrary nature of success in the art world.
Yes My Wish forms part of the artist’s broader inquiries into the way new technologies shape social life, and into evolving relationships between human and machine.