Many parts of the world have experienced, or are currently experiencing, the second lockdown due to Covid19.
The pandemic has created disastrous situations from many points of view, from a global health emergency to economic and political crisis. The cultural sector has not been spared: indeed, many galleries and museums have failed to maintain the programs set for the current year.
At the Pace Gallery, in London, “Bloom”, the exhibition of Trevor Paglen has just ended. The American artist has spoken of his work as “an exhibition of many things, but mostly mourning”.
“Bloom” has been conceived starting from high-resolution photographs of plants and flowers in bloom taken by the artist, and then fed into a customized AI-suite where they were broken down into their main components. The result is a series of unnatural, unsettling, and allegorical images that deviate from nature.
Borrowing from art history, Paglen used flowers as a symbol of the fragility of life. When he introduced his work, he explained that he found himself gravitating towards these images in a moment where loss has become a constant presence in our life.
[Fig. 2] Trevor Paglen: “Bloom”. Credit: Pace Gallery
The sense of fragility has then been taken up by the artist and connected to a broader discussion on the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence. Paglen has also discussed the core themes of “Bloom” in an online panel with Andria Hickey, Pace’s Senior Director and Curator, Julia Bryan-Wilson, Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art at the University of California, Berkeley, and Jimena Canales, scholar in the History of Science and author.
[Fig. 3] “AI and Allegory in the COVID Era” - a panel with Andria Hickey, Trevor Paglen, Julia Bryan-Wilson, and Jimena Canales. Credit Pace Gallery.
In a time where social distance is paramount, Paglen has focused on the idea of designing an exhibition that reflects also on the concepts of abstraction, presence, remoteness and online engagement.
On top of the images generated with machine learning, the artist has then created Octopus, an apparatus that allowed visitors to visit the exhibition remotely and be part of it by streaming their personal webcams on the monitors displayed inside of the exhibition.
While Octopus is not available anymore, you can still explore the exhibition: https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/trevor-paglen-bloom/
Hopefully this was interesting, as conversations about Art and AI are going on. All the posts are available here on the website at any time, where they are up-to-date. Have a good week.