Wagenknecht is known for pioneering the use of drones in painting and other mechanized forms of art in the early 2000s while based in New York.
Her works are often recognized for their experimental co-creative aspects, exploring the relationship between technology and the vulnerabilities of being alive. Previous exhibitions and works held in permanent collections include the Centre Pompidou, Istanbul Modern, Whitechapel Gallery, Whitney Museum of American Art, and the New Museum in New York, among others. She has collaborated with CERN, Chanel, Coinbase, and Google's Art Machine Intelligence (AMI) Group. Her work has been featured in publications such as TIME, The Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, Art in America, and The New York Times. Wagenknecht has held fellowships at Eyebeam Art + Technology Center in New York City, Culture Lab UK, Institute HyperWerk for Postindustrial Design in Basel (CH), and The Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University.
This duality reflects the tension between the desire for knowledge and the risks of information access in a surveilled digital landscape. The repetition invites viewers to examine their own relationships with technology, privacy, and the consequences of their choices, challenging us to confront our digital actions and the allure of the forbidden.
Wagenknecht allows the pieces to respond organically to changes in temperature and light within the exhibition space. This interplay with chromic elements ensures that each artwork is in a constant state of transformation, making every viewing a unique experience—no piece will ever be the same twice.
- Wagenknecht recorded her search through hundreds of video chat rooms looking for another woman, moving on as soon as her next potential conversation partner was revealed as anyone but. Within a few seconds, each of the works reinforces the disturbing gender imbalance and fundamental weirdness of the online experience, as the artist is served up a steady stream of dudes lying in bed, dudes wearing only a towel, serving active military duty—and nothing else except the occasional empty room. Commissioned by the Museum of Moving Image, New York City
- To create this series of paintings. Wagenknecht modified a Roomba to paint on canvas as it enacts custom algorithms. As the Roomba maneuvers around the canvas, Wagenknecht reclines nude. The Roomba relentlessly attempts to navigate around her body because it is designed to continue on a trajectory until the entire area has been mapped by its algorithm. The result is a void in the shape of a female form surrounded by the blue strokes of the robot. The paintings reference Yves Klein’s Anthropométries in which he directs nude female models, who he referred to as “living paintbrushes,” to press their pigment-covered bodies against canvases in front of an audience. In contrast, Wagenknecht abandons the spectacle of the objectified female nude in favor of drawing attention to what is absent. There is no performance or process documentation on display and the female form is only acknowledged in the negative space of the paintings.
- America Flag is sterile installation of three pedestals mounted with archival paper. Above each plinth, ink slowly drips from IVs. Over time, this performance reveals an abstracted image as red ink pools and cascades into blue puddles. Negative space completes the configuration, an inky rendering of the American flag. Jasper Johns’ seminal flag paintings, in particular Three Flags (1958), served as great inspiration to Wagenknecht during this period of study. Nested inside one another, Johns’ composition highlights the structure of the flag as an object as well as a national emblem. Wagenknecht echoes this approach by favouring process over end result, refiguring America drop by drop.
- Originally coined in the early 1980s, the glass ceiling metaphor describes the invisible barriers preventing women from reaching elite positions. Today, these barriers are measurable and quantifiable, yet they remain subtle and ingrained, echoing the idea that "those who do not move do not feel their chains."
In her documentation and final works, the artist incorporates bulletproof glass panes, using various methods to break them that reflect the modern female experience. In "The Kiss," she engages with femininity and the notion of the 'female artist,' using her appearance to leave marks without causing damage. This piece critiques the pressure on women in the post-internet movement to rely on their physical looks.
"Throwing Rocks" addresses the paradox of women critiquing the very culture they depend on, ultimately leading to a sense of loss. In "Cracked," she employs a cement block to break the glass while injuring herself in the process. Ironically, the visible crack—representing 'success'—is absent from the footage, highlighting the secretive and competitive nature of successful women and the often unseen costs of their achievements.
- The Liberator vases are a series of vases composed of 3D prints of the open source Liberator gun, the first 3D modeled, open source handgun made available utilizing torrent sites. The Liberator gun is multiplied and parametrically modeled to form a recognizable classic vase. The guns are thus deformed, clustered and turned useless, in a way that points to the subversive power of appropriation and creativity but also attempts to morph the gun into an artifact of the network itself. Made in collaboration with Martin Zangerl and Stefan Hechenberger in commission from MU Eindhoven, NL and HeK Basel, CH.
- Data & Dragons Level 1-3 is an evolving sculpture project first presented in Austria in 2013, now featuring three installations: Kilohydra: A Love Letter to Chelsea, xxxx.xxx, and Cloud Farming.
- Each installation interacts with internet data in distinct ways.
Kilohydra and xxxx.xxx utilize custom printed circuit boards to intercept and log surrounding data, anthropomorphizing a server room as a tribute to a time when online experiences felt anonymous. Despite processing information, the sculpture never discloses its findings.
Cloud Farming recontextualizes technological hierarchies into a portrait of data, merging the cloud, social networks, and data leaks into a single object. It creatively examines contemporary power structures, serving as a three-dimensional map of post-Wikileaks information culture.