From the series Imagined Present | Man Washing Dishes

2024

AI-generated image, SX 70 B&W Polaroid technique
25 × 25 cm

My work is closely linked to my earlier series Public Spaces, which explores how statues in different urban public spaces shape social identity and influence public taste. How is the human body represented in public spaces? In what roles and according to which ideals of beauty and social expectations do we encounter these figures? How do these representations affect younger generations and influence their ways of thinking? I toyed with the idea of how our social and other identities would evolve if we encountered at least as many statues of Vilma Hugonnai, Janka Zirzen, Rosa Parks and Marie Curie in our everyday surroundings as those of Sándor Petőfi, Lajos Kossuth and Endre Ady. What if we did not only admire the beauty of the female body but also the idealised representations of the other half of humanity: men? Using artificial intelligence, I generated images of public spaces in which subjects other than the dominant sculptural themes of the past 100–150 years appear. Then, using an analogue photographic technique, I captured these AI-generated digital images, originally displayed on a monitor. As a result of the Polaroid process, a tangible vision, rendered as (quasi) reality, emerged.

photo: Kolozsi Bea