Remains of the Code

THE WRITING ON THE WALL by Kalen Iwamoto is a generative, conceptual series that plays with the visual and discursive codes of the art world. In a nod to the Conceptual Art movement and its focus on text and dematerialisation, this series uses the form of the artwork label to invite viewers and readers to imagine the speculative artworks advanced by artificial intelligence. This AI was trained on the artist’s previous artwork descriptions and further prompted to create outputs evoking conceptual works of the future that grapple with art, language, and technology. The resulting labels blur the lines between poetic and expository texts, while raising questions about the nature of art, interpretation and representation in the future.