GENERATIVE PROMPT: ARTIST MENTORSHIP WITH MICHELLE SYLVESTRE

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Raemond Parker-Rauda, no date

(courtesy of the Gallery)

MADI AITKEN, SILAS MURRAY-PEYTON, ABIGAIL NORTHCOTT, RAEMOND PARKER-RAUDA, DANI SPAN, TITANIA TOMPSON

Alongside the long-running Art’s Alive and Well in the Schools exhibition every Spring at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery Maansiksikaitsitapiitsinikssin, Generative Prompt is a group exhibition of local high school students working in an artist mentorship model with Lethbridge-based artist Michelle Sylvestre. This project began with monthly mentorship meetings hosted by Sylvestre, guiding the students through steps of material experimentation, creation, and concept formulation. Through the guidance of a practicing contemporary artist, this project offers an interested group of highschool students an in-depth opportunity to learn the possibilities of contemporary art practice, from artwork creation to presentation in their own thematic exhibition. 

This exhibition originated with a prompt to the six artists about engagement with the rapidly evolving world of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Utilizing a range of mediums, the artists explore themes of environmental impact, the absorption of human information, and the shifting role of humanity in an increasingly digital world. Some artists incorporate shrinking plastic, a versatile material that adds texture and depth to their expressions of AI's influence. Through their diverse works, each artist provokes us to consider how AI increasingly intersects with our lives through the intertwining of machine and human expression, its repercussions on energy and water consumption, and ongoing tensions between organisms and machines in the realms of imagination and creation.