My Loneliness is Killing Me

Flo Low is a British-Armenian artist, graphic designer, and art educator based in Brooklyn. They use printmaking and textile to explore the figures and landscapes of the past, how they shape us and how we shape them in response to loneliness and alienation. In their practice, they gather found fragments that give us a glimpse into the layered history around us, including city typography, which they have published as the NYC ABCs, and Armenian food history, published as Recipes from a Free Artsakh. Inspired by the children they work with, their ongoing project Bags for Life plays with form and function through designing and making single-purpose (but not single use) bags.

My Loneliness is Killing Me (2018)
chatbot, projection, silk, cotton, embroidery, cross stitch, letterpress

What happens when we seek queer community online, in dating apps, rather than in person? What is the effect that seeking comfort in formulaic conversation has on us? I explored these questions through programming a chat bot with the same inane questions and answers that I had written and received many times over in dating apps, and invited participants to “speak” with the chat bot. The conversation was projected onto a quilt, a household object that should be warm and comforting, with patches made by myself and others about themes of loneliness and connection.