“Other People” is a series of portraits that explore the struggles of Queer representation and visibility. These “self portraits” are not actually of the artist, but rather of AI generated people based on a physical description of the artist. For trans people, the public face is often a site of struggle. The gendered assumptions that are read onto a face make the face a site of conflict. “Other People” challenges the fundamental tenet of the portrait - that a person’s face can give us some truth about them. The portraits are first based on AI generated images, which are then painted onto calico and then cut out and stuffed. Then, in collaboration with artificial intelligence, videos are layered over the paintings in augmented reality. The faces ‘speak; in AR, reading poetry written by the artist in the artist’s voice. This gives the faces an added agency in the space.

‘Displayed in conjunction with the faces is a video work titled “You Cannot Reach Me I Stay Dry” also created in collaboration with AI. The video depicts the artist repeatedly washing their face, each time emerging from the water with a different AI generated face.

Zoë Sydney

Zoë Sydney