Sophie Ashdown

On Saturday I went to the British Art Fair at Saatchi gallery in Chelsea.

There were a large number of exhibitors and pieces on display. There were galleries showing some significant famous British artists like Bridget Riley and Sir Terry Frost, some galleries showing contemporary artists, and some artists representing themselves.

The main reason for wanting to visit in particular this year was that they had a new section called “Digitalism” which was for art using technology and data.

I was hoping to see if there was some art based on data and whilst there were some pieces that were created using AI and coding, there weren’t any pieces that were data specific. In one way I was disappointed, but in another way I felt that it’s not a bad thing that I plan to be forging ahead in a genre that it still getting established.

Many of the pieces in the Digitalism section were themed on Space and aliens:

Evolutionary Singularity – Ricardo Couto

There was SO much use of AI that despite the breadth of pieces on show, it all felt a bit same-y which was a surprise. Certainly these artists are creating incredible pieces of art, and it isn’t all just AI doing the work, but much of it left me cold.

The Last Bloom – Julien Durand

There were some more upbeat and colourful options that lifted the mood as below…

4in1 – KWEL

One piece that did catch my eye was this:

What We Left on the Moon – Matt Black

When I first saw it, I was interested in the letters across the front and thought they were printed onto the photo, but they are actually lasered onto a piece of glass that sits a couple of centimetres in front of the photo. This creates shadows on the work depending on where the light is coming from.

I chatted to the artist, Matt Black, for quite some time about his work and this piece. He created the image himself using a combination of his own photography skills and a bit of AI. He then used an AI word generator to create what is actually a WordSearch (!) with the letters. There are apparently thirty words related to the moon landings hidden amongst the letters.

I found this piece fascinating and can admit to spending a fair bit of time trying to find some of the words.

Matt and I exchanged Instagram details and have been in touch since the show. We are discussing a version of this piece that could be coming to my hallway very soon. I will post a photo of that if it happens!