Celebrating key 1980s works by pioneering video artist Gretchen Bender, “The Perversion of the Visual” opens at Sprüth Magers Los Angeles. Taking centre stage is Dumping Core (1984, image), the late American artist’s 13-monitor megamix of CGI, corporate logo animations, and photos of the Salvadoran Civil War. Untitled (Daydream Nation) (1989), a series of computer-generated fractal prints, and Ghostbusters (1984), an experiment in CGI portraiture, are also displayed.

Addressing nationalism and Arctic sovereignty, Toril Johannessen’s “Deterrence and Reassurance” opens at Bergen Kunsthall (NO). In the show’s titular work, the Norweigian artist contrasts comfy Scandinavian lifestyle with Norway’s arctic policy (read: securing oil and gas deposits) via 18 rugs woven from military textiles (2024, image). Through the rugs and accompanying maps, Johannessen “visualizes the presence of the military in the landscape and the social imaginary.”

Polish artist Krzysztof Wodiczko’s permanent installation Voices of Memory (2023, image) opens in the Hall of Remembrance at Warsaw Insurgents Cemetery. A memorial to the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, in which 150,000 civilians and 18,000 insurgents died during a revolt against occupying German forces, it “expresses opposition to all armed conflicts.” In the piece, Wodiczko presents audio of survivors’ testimonials and syncs their traumatic recollections with projections of flickering flames.

An exhibition for the post-truth era, Trevor Paglen’s “You’ve Just Been Fucked by PSYOPS” opens at Pace New York. In it, the American artist charts the “enduring effects of military and CIA influence operations on American culture” through several new works. These include an unknown orbital object photo series, and Because Physical Wounds Heal… (2022, image right), a mixed media—steel, bullets, resin—sculpture that mythologizes the iconography, sloganeering, and abject horror of U.S. psychological warfare.

“Images of Resistance from Elsewhere,” an e-flux Video & Film screening program launches. Exploring the mediation of political struggle, it features films by The Otolith Group, Jocelyne Saab, b.h. Yael, and Mohanad Yaqubi that show conflict “from the point of view of the engaged observer.” Notably, it includes Harun Farocki’s War at a Distance (2003, image), which connects post-Gulf War military trends (missile cams, CGI, etc.) with industry and ideology. The online program runs through Jan 18.

In an interview conducted in the wake of her current solo show, “Twisted,” at New York’s New Museum, American media artist Lynn Hershman Leeson reflects on five decades of interrogating emerging technologies. Known for making poignant statements about surveillance, bioengineering, and AI (image: Seduction of a Cyborg, 1994), Leeson notes that “every single advancement in technology had its base in warfare. There’s an inherent strand in the DNA of these inventions that leads them to assault. We have to cure that.”