Institute of Contemporary Arts show on gender, sexuality and celebrity culture

Still of Orbit of Rock by Zhang Ding, part of the Looks exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts. Photograph: ICA

Mass digital culture and an examination of the post-human world will be at the core of next years programme at the Institute of Contemporary Arts.

The London gallery will showcase a variety of young artists from around the world in its spring 2015 show, titled Looks. It will examine how they use their art to respond to the urgent social issues that have arisen out of technology and our online identities focusing on gender, sexuality and the obsession with celebrity culture.

Look, which opens next April, will feature new works ranging from film installations by LA-based filmmaker and artist Wu Tsang who examines social medias hold over society to paintings by French artist Juliette Bonneviot made partly from xenohormones, a material found in silicon and the pill.

This show is about acknowledging that we are living in a world where the digital and internet is our primary means of expression, that its become very important particularly in terms of our identity, said Katharine Stout, chief curator at the ICA. These artists are exploring the themes of digital, and the presence we create for ourselves online, but not always in a digital artistic format. It also explores how new technologies are affecting the way gender and sexuality are understood or even shaped in todays society.

One of the key pieces in the exhibition, said Stout, would be a video by Tsang, titled A Day in the Life of Bliss, which Stout described as extraordinary.

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Its set in the near future and it almost has a sci-fi feel to it, she said. It follows this protagonist called Bliss, who is a celebrity performer. And in this future world theres this phenomenon called Looks which is controlled by social media, where celebrities and their status is controlled by how many looks or likes they get. Its an immersive film installation but it has this very performative feel, which speaks to the idea that identity is now constantly performed as well as being something innate.

She added: It may be set in a fictional future but it is a powerful piece that very much speaks to current celebrity culture and our own lives, which are very much controlled by social media.

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Institute of Contemporary Arts show on gender, sexuality and celebrity culture