For her second solo show with Hesse Flatow, Hudson Valley-based artist Kirsten Deirup presents a series of paintings and works on paper in “Ex Voto In Silico.” The title of the show is a play on Latin, with the term “voto” meaning votive or offering, and the term “in silico” an invented Latin term referring to when an object has been put through a computer program. Echoing 20th-century discussions around the essence of art in the face of mechanical reproduction, Deirup’s work confronts the boundary between creation by human hand and artificial intelligence.
Incongruities abound in each composition; plants blossom into dazzling gems, a tree is hung with tennis balls instead of fruit, and plastic spray bottles, a slice of bread, or a computer keyboard appear in otherwise classical-inspired settings. Backgrounds are obfuscated and pervasive shadows lend the otherwise aesthetically pristine vignettes a deep, unshakable sense of the uncanny. Here, the idea of artificial intelligence as it is understood in the realm of art is turned on its head, and Deirup captures the zeitgeist of today as we face the unknown.
