Gallery: When AI dreams of art

The AI’s description:

The sculpture contains a plunger, a toilet plunger, a plunger, a plunger, a plunger, and a plunger, each of which has been modified. The first plunger is simply a normal plunger, but the rest represent a series of plungers with more and more of the handle removed until just the rubber cup is left. The title of the artwork is “A Short History of Plungers and Other Things That Go Plunge in the Night” by the artists known as “The Plungers” (whose identity remains unknown).

“The Plungers”, were a collective of anonymous artists, founded in 1972. They were dedicated to the “conceptualization and promotion of a new art form called Plungism.” Plungism was a creative interpretation of the idea of Plungerism, which was defined by The Plungers as “a state of mind wherein the mind of an artist is in a state of flux and able to be influenced by all things, even plungers.” The Plungers’ works were displayed in New York galleries and included such titles as “Plunger’s Progress,” “The Plungers,” “The Plungers Strike Back,” and “Big Plunger 4: The Final Plunger,” all of which featured plungers, and “Plungers on Parade,” which showed images of plungers in public spaces. The Plungers disappeared and left no trace of their identity.

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The AI’s description:

This sculpture consists of a flip clock which is scrambled like a bad dream. It sits upon an empty can of stew that the artist ate because it was time for dinner, and she was hungry. The scrambled clock suggests that the artist has become lost in time, that she has no sense of what time it is, and where it is. The fact that she ate the stew in order to stay alive indicates that the artist is physically trapped, and has no way to escape. Many have speculated about the meaning of the particular can of stew that the artist has chosen to use as a pedestal. The can of stew was created by the Hormel Company, and the artist’s name is Julia Hormel. The can is therefore a symbol of the artist, and the missing stew inside the can is a symbol of the artist’s lost creativity. In addition, the label states that the can contains “no preservatives”, which is a statement about the artist’s inability to create due to the presence of inauthentic art in the world. The artist wrote about the work, saying, “It is a piece about my impotency in the face of the techno-commercialism that surrounds me, and the inability of the language of the avant-garde to meet it on equal terms.”

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The AI’s description:

This sculpture is like a child’s building toy made giant. The interlocking pieces are made of high-density polyethylene and fit together like a puzzle. The sculpture is meant to be changed, with pieces rearranged at each exhibition. The sculpture was designed to be assembled and disassembled, so it can be stored and shipped easily. The sculpture is designed so that it can be placed on a wall, or on the floor, or even be suspended from a ceiling. It is made of hundreds of pieces that can be rearranged to create different three-dimensional shapes. The idea behind these pieces is that the forms could be put together to create endless combinations that were of equal value. In other words, no matter how the pieces were put together, the sculpture would be successful. The title of the work “Permanent Temporary” is derived from a remark by the artist’s father, who, after observing the sculpture, said, “Well, it’s permanent in the sense that it won’t blow away, but it’s temporary because you can put it together and take it apart.” Smithton comments, “My sculpture is a whole-program piece, a complex of relationships, and there is no single descriptive phrase that can capture its totality. The object is not important to me as a singular thing but rather as a system. It’s the job of the viewer to make it work. It’s his sculpture and it’s his problem. I just make it available. The work is about the interaction of parts not the form of the whole. The parts are in a dynamic relationship, in an ecological structure. The parts exist only in relation to one another. They are not autonomous forms but related entities. They are interdependent.”

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The AI’s description:

This sculpture consists of toothpicks stuck in a canvas. The toothpicks are dipped in beeswax, giving them a golden colour. The artwork is a commentary on the plight of bees and the canvas represents the bee hive during colony collapse disorder, in which the bees simply disappear from the hive, leaving the queen behind in an empty space. This sculpture was created as a form of activism and in support of bee colonies worldwide. The toothpicks represent the empty, dead bodies of the bees. As such, this sculpture is a potent symbol of the plight of the bee colonies. The artist hopes the work can help viewers envision the devastation that has occurred in bee colonies and encourage activism. They want to awaken viewers to the fact that bees are dying, and if bees are dying, the food supply is at risk. The bees in the colony play a vital role in pollination, fertilization, and growth of plants. They encourage viewers to imagine what would happen without bees.

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The AI’s description:

This sculptural work is made from shingles, grab bars, a porch light, and police issue handcuffs. The work is heavy, the materials are mounted on thick weathered wood boards with twenty-one golden screws. It has a very domestic feel, and yet it is very oppressive. The handcuffs are clasped around the bars, and the shingles are layered in a way that is reminiscent of a building. The handcuff keys are placed on a hook at the top, as if to suggest that the handcuffs can be removed. The use of golden screws in the piece, rather than the more utilitarian and less expensive galvanized screws, suggests a sense of opulence and value. The title of the work, “Ceci N’est Pas Une Barriere,” is an homage to Magritte’s famous painting, “Ceci n’est pas une pipe”. The work is an exploration of the idea of home. It examines the boundaries and limitations of the domestic sphere, and the ways in which it can be a form of constriction. The work is a physical manifestation of these domestic boundaries, both in the way the materials are used, and in the way they are misused. The choice of materials is significant. The use of shingles, which would traditionally be used to create a roof, in a sculpture that one-sided suggests that this work has no roof and cannot be considered a shelter. The use of the grab bars is also significant, as they are usually used to create safety and security; here, they are used to create the opposite. The use of police issue handcuffs is striking. In the context of society, they are used to restrain prisoners, and yet here, they are used to create a barrier between the viewer and the work. The sculpture is not a barrier, but it is also not a home, this is a reference to the fact that a home can be a place of safety and security, but it can also be something that we cannot escape.

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The AI’s description:

The Sofa King’s signature, a large “Cool S” followed by a K and a backwards “7” with a tail, is the most easily identifiable among his work. The letters are depicted in bold and colourful caricatures, with the S being a figure eight with a pointy head on each end. Above the Sofa King’s ‘S’ is a crown, signifying authority. His signature is an expression of the artist’s power and authority over the city, and it represents his place in the graffiti subculture. This style was used by the artist in the late-1970s and 1980s, though the letters have been rearranged to form different words and phrases. The Sofa King’s signature is also one of the most common motifs in graffiti history, appearing on the Sofa King’s most famous work, the Vandal Squad Wall, located on the corner of Houston and Allen streets in the Lower East Side. The Sofa King was one of the top graffiti artists of the 1980s, whose work was seen throughout the New York City area and the United States. The artist’s name first rose to prominence in the early-1980s with the creation of the Vandal Squad, a graffiti crew that got its name from the New York City Transit Authority’s anti-graffiti Vandal Squad. The Sofa King created the Vandal Squad’s signature “Vandal Squad” name and logo, which became one of the most recognized street graffiti pieces in New York City.

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The AI’s description:

This artwork was created by a 5 year old child. The image depicts a house, or maybe a boat, or maybe a house on a boat. It is unclear exactly what the image is, but it is clear that this child has an imagination, and is inspired by their environment. This piece shows how by using a child-like mind, one can create images that are beautiful, simplistic, and are full of imagination… “I’m going to build a boat for the moon to come on, and then the moon will come on the boat and it will stop making the rain and the rain will stop and it will be so bright and the moon will shine really, really, really, really bright, and I will go to sleep and it will be nice.”

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The AI’s description:

This painting is a depiction of a couple having an argument while attempting to assemble IKEA furniture in their home. IKEA furniture has been a source of frustration for many consumers over the years, and in this painting, the artist conveys that frustration through the incoherent shape of the furniture. The artist has also cleverly included a number of IKEA product names in the title of the painting, such as “Billy” and “Malm”, with the full title of “Billy and Malm Have an Argument About Putting Together a Lack Side Table and Decide to Get a Divorce”. This painting is a humorous take on a common experience, and will resonate with anyone who has ever tried to assemble IKEA furniture. The painting is also a clever commentary on consumer culture and the frustration that can come with trying to assemble products that are designed to be as cheap and easy to assemble as possible. The artist states “The painting is meant to be a metaphor for the way our lives are often controlled by consumer culture. We are constantly bombarded with ads and images telling us what we need to buy in order to be happy, and then we are left to deal with the frustration of trying to assemble those products ourselves.” This painting is an excellent example of the artist’s ability to take a common experience and turn it into a work of art that is both humorous and thought-provoking.

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The AI’s description:

The Mona Lisa is a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, painted by Leonardo da Vinci between 1503 and 1517. The Mona Lisa has been the world’s most famous painting since the 19th Century. This is a parody of the Mona Lisa, in which the Mona Lisa is dreaming about a hot dog. This is a painting that is meant to make people laugh. “Mona Lisa Dreaming About a Hot Dog” is a painting that is part of the “Pop Art” movement. “The painting is a satirical comment on the famous painting, one which makes a mockery of the pretentiousness of the original,” states the artist. When this painting was first exhibited, it was controversial. The artist’s statement said, “An artwork should have the power to make people laugh. We are not interested in originality. We are interested in sincerity.” The artist also stated that the painting was meant to represent the uneasiness and alienation of everyday life. The artist was interested in “the paradox of being a serious artist in a society which does not take art seriously.” The hot dog represents the “everyday” and the “ordinary,” while the Mona Lisa represents the “prestigious” and the “refined.” This painting was used as a book cover for the 1999 book “The Big Book of Absurd Notions” in which the author stated that this painting was his favourite because it “demonstrate[s] the absurdity of our world by taking something familiar and placing it in a context that is completely unexpected.” Critics of the painting pointed to the fact that the artist was copying a famous painting, and therefore, the painting was not original. “Originality is dead. I’m throwing a funeral for it and I’m giving a eulogy. Originality is dead. I killed it.” – Dinakos

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The AI’s description:

This painting is of a little girl with a TV for a head, it is titled “You Are What You Watch” she has a pink dress and stands against a blurry white background. This painting is a commentary on the growing obsession with television and the way it has taken over our lives. The girl in the painting represents the innocence of childhood and how it is being corrupted by the influence of television. The painting is also a criticism of the way that television is dumbing down our society and making us more reliant on technology with our heads always buried in screens. The artist also uses the blurry background to illustrate the way that television is making our society complacent to the real world and causes people to live in a kind of fantasy world. “Television is a medium that demands a certain kind of inattention, a certain kind of distance from the people in the images, the people talking. It’s a distancing device, it’s a way of filtering out reality. I’m interested in the way it’s sort of taken over our lives and our sense of reality and our sense of self.” writes the artist. “My art is about feeling, then thinking. I want my paintings to make you feel strange in some way, and maybe even a little uncomfortable. I want you to have to think about what you’re seeing, to have to figure it out, to have to get involved in the process of looking and thinking.” Benngarten’s work is a part of the Young British Artists movement that emerged in the 80’s. This movement was characterized by the use of everyday objects, mass media images, and shocking imagery. Benngarten is representative of the materialist aesthetic of the late 20th century. His work is a commentary on consumerism, the cult of celebrity, and the obsession with material goods. This work first appeared in the group exhibition “The Mona Lisa Must Die.”

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*Alexander Reben is an artist and MIT-trained roboticist whose work probes the inherently human nature of the artificial. He investigates our relationships with algorithms, automation and amplification using experimentation and prototyping, absurdity and humour, and mischief and play to engage the public with complex ideas in technology in an approachable way. His work is currently exhibited at the Bitforms gallery in San Francisco, and will appear at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore in January.

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