"Guanyin: Confessions of a Former Carebot" by Lawrence Lek | Frieze Artist Award

Lawrence Lek, a Londoner born in Frankfurt of Malaysian-Chinese heritage, was announced as the recipient of the 2024 Artist Award at Frieze London. The award gives early or mid-career artists the opportunity to realise a new commission at Frieze London. 

Lek’s work often addresses the moral dilemmas around AI while exploring the creative potential of digital worldbuilding, shot through with dark, absurdist humour.

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For his exhibit at Frieze London, titled 'Guanyin: Confessions of a Former Carebot', Lek merges narrative worldbuilding on a large digital screen with a playable video game; viewers are invited to play and explore the contemplative world of Guanyin, a robotic counsellor engineered to bring other AI systems back from the brink of digital despair, preventing them from spiralling into existential crises. Guanyin means ‘the one who listens’ and is named after the Buddhist goddess of mercy. 

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The installation takes cues from 'walking simulators,' a genre of video games focused on environmental exploration. As players interact with Guanyin's story, they're enveloped by an ambiance that feels both slightly haunting and unsettling, where they are faced with questions about the essence of consciousness, the future of emotional intelligence in machines, and their own place within an increasingly automated world. The work reflects our own existential anxieties back at us, and opens a philosophical inquiry into what it means to exist, to be heard, and to find purpose – whether made of flesh or code.

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Chris Rawcliffe, Artistic Director at Forma, who was on the jury that selected Lek’s proposal said of the award, “Lawrence Lek’s practice carries out essential interrogations into the use of AI and its relationship with the human experience. He simultaneously pushes the boundaries of disciplines and crafts worlds that critique the use of new technologies.”

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“Pattern of Activation (Gardens of the Galaxy)” by Katja Novitskova | Temnikova & Kasela Gallery

“Pattern of Activation (Gardens of the Galaxy)” is a slideshow of images from various datasets that the artist indexed on a citizen science platform, where volunteers are asked to organise images, usually with the goal of training image processing AI algorithms and assisting scientific research projects. 

The wide range of images used include wildlife cam photos, stars, snail embryos, monkey blood cells, proteins, bacteria and clouds on Mars – the galaxy and everything within it, all flattened into the same scale and texture, in an arrangement of pixels.

The artist herself has classified over 12,000 images. Novitskova actively digs for deeper narratives within these datasets, which reveal themselves through a combination of technology and the reality that it attempts to capture: glowing eyes of animals that reflect the flash-light of the camera, accidentally stunning compositions of galaxies and forests, etc.

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This process underscores how technology can reveal hidden narratives and artistry in the data we collect, inviting viewers to see beyond the surface and engage with the deeper meanings embedded in these visual records. The work encourages us to reflect on our relationship with both nature and technology by questioning our obsession and ability to "capture" nature – automated cameras allow for the assertion of human presence in areas where people are physically absent encroaching on the notion of true wilderness and privacy.

The slideshow operates at a pace that outstrips typical human perception, tailored instead for a machine's perspective, offering a glimpse into a non-human visual experience. This rapid display generates a visual poetry, with 24 images flashing by every second, each one carefully selected and sequenced by the artist. The looping sequence offers viewers a mesmerising, almost trance-like experience where the full spectrum of images can't be grasped in one go, encouraging multiple viewings to catch different details. 

The project remains in progress, with Novitskova intending to lengthen the loop. With each exhibition, the artwork grows by a few more seconds.

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"Becoming Wind" by John Akomfrah | LG OLED Lounge

Akomfrah’s "Becoming Wind", an immersive five-screen film installation, uses a symphony of visuals and sounds to create a unified story of humanity, nature and loss – reimagining the symbolic imagery of the Garden of Eden. Sheltered in the LG OLED Lounge, it provided a temporary escape from the bustle of the art fair. 

Through black-and-white mournful imagery, the work recalls the richness of past biodiversity, highlighting our responsibility to confront climate change within a time-sensitive deadline. Phrases frequently appeared on the screens such as “the thing to come” and “in the air," heightening the sense of urgency.

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Scenes of children playing on the beach intertwine with the everyday lives of non-binary and transgender actors and activists, offering a meditation on the challenges we are facing in a changing world. 

The work features sounds of wind, humming and sombre chants, and it employs a low frame rate, infusing each video with a stuttering motion that casts an eerie, foreboding shadow over the imagery.

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"New World Order" and "We Are In Hell When We Hurt Each Other" by Jacolby Satterwhite |‍ Kadel Willborn

Jacolby Satterwhite's "New World Order," part of his expansive series "A Metta Prayer," was commissioned for the Metropolitan Museum's Great Hall in 2023. This two-part, 3D hologram installation with an integrated soundscape, draws from the Buddhist Metta prayer, embracing themes of love and the harmonious coexistence of diverse perspectives.

In this work, Satterwhite integrates the aesthetics of endless runner video games, where characters including; Laveau Contraire who belongs to the Queer Wrestling Group ‘The Choke Hole’ and O´Shea Sibley who was killed in a hate crime during their collaboration, are depicted not in conflict but in a quest for enlightenment, gathering "mantra coins" amidst their journey from dystopia to an ethereal, life-filled sky. This visual narrative, underscored by repetition, mirrors the meditative loop of the Metta mantra, and highlights a longing to transform hate into love.

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A soundtrack produced by PAT (the ethereal voice of the late Patricia Satterwhite, Jacolby Satterwhite, Nightfeelings, and Patrick Belaga) pulses with an invigorating beat, propelling the visual elements forward.

"New World Order" constructs a digital space that both represents and expresses love, joy, and resilience – and urges its audience to ponder the profound layers of repetitive existence in their personal narratives.

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“We Are In Hell When We Hurt Each Other” is a virtual pastoral concert space that imagines a post-pandemic, post-revolution world for Black femme figures. 

Over the course of the 24-minute video, the CGI figures pose, dance and thrive in Satterwhite’s imagined world, where they are immune to biological threats and unfazed by the dystopian elements that loom. The video flows from one environment to the next, disrupting any linear narrative within the fantasy.

Jacolby Satterwhite once again uses the voice of his late mother, Patricia Satterwhite, to echo spiritual and unifying chants such as, "We are in hell when we fail to exist; we are in hell when we nail hands and wrists," over an acid house-style track.

The female CGI figures embody a lyrical and sacred quality in their ritual movement, accentuating their divine presence. The vivid, lush digital landscapes and the portrayal of sensual figures take inspiration from Titian's paintings – placing idealised figures in nature, here reimagined in a digital form.

And Manet's impact can be seen in the contemporary twist on classical themes, the direct confrontation with the viewer (through the actions and gazes of the CGI figures), and the blending of everyday life with art.