Poised above the lady in the red dress is a claw. Its metallic fingers grasp to pluck its prize from a jumble of other women while she looks dreamily upward, as if to say \u201cWho, me?\u201d<\/p>\n
The woman in the red dress is Australian comedian Alice Fraser<\/a>, as photographed on stage. The other women \u2013 generic superheroes and 1950s housewives \u2013 were created using the generative AI software Krea.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is the human being chosen over the AI element,\u201d artist Jackie Ryan says. \u201cBut is being chosen a good thing?\u201d<\/p>\n Ryan\u2019s work The Catch<\/a> is a finalist in this year\u2019s Brisbane portrait prize (BPP). For Ryan, using AI is just a new addition to a career<\/a> spent creatively exploring pop culture. More than 15 years ago, she used image editing software and a \u201cfiddly\u201d process of cutting and pasting by hand to render photos she took of real people into a graphic novel series.<\/a>After taking the photo of Fraser posing earlier this year, Ryan wondered: could AI encase her subject in a claw machine?<\/p>\n Brisbane portrait prize finalist Jackie Ryan stands in front of her artwork The Catch, which used generative AI. Photograph: Rhett Wyman\/The Guardian<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know, can it?\u201d she laughs, holding up a screenshot of Krea\u2019s first effort.<\/p>\n The initial image is photorealistic and unsettling, doll-like figures standing stiffly inside a glass case. Ryan gave the software more prompts: add feminist tropes. Pile the figures messily atop one another. Alter the backdrop. Apply Ben Day dots.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t just wake up with these under your pillow,\u201d Ryan says, of the final product.<\/p>\n The gallery space in which Ryan stands is alive with preparations for the BPP\u2019s opening night on Friday. A trio of artists tack a clown made of Lycra on to the wall with entomology pins. A charcoal Archie Moore watches solemnly on, his 2024 Venice Biennale Golden Lion winning work, Kith and Kin<\/a>, behind him.<\/p>\n Installation for the Brisbane portrait prize 2026. Photograph: Rhett Wyman\/The Guardian<\/p>\n The BPP made headlines in 2024 when it opened its doors to AI-generated art, including the main Lord Mayor\u2019s prize, worth $50,000. It came at a time art and photography prizes around the world were grappling with how to deal with the technological conundrum, after a number were left red-faced<\/a> by unwittingly giving awards to AI generated works.<\/p>\n But the BPP\u2019s response of opening its doors to declared AI shocked and outraged many in the city\u2019s arts scene<\/a> and prompted several former winners to publicly boycott the award, including Walkley-winning photographer Russell Shakespeare, who likened it to allowing \u201cdrugs in sport<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n Among the more prominent critics was former BPP packer\u2019s prize winner<\/a> and Wiradyuri artist Birrunga, who boycotted the prize in 2024 and again last year, along with his gallery\u2019s stable of artists.<\/p>\n \u2018AI cannot give a piece what we can\u2019 \u2026 Kamilaroi artist Elysia Love-Anderson. Photograph: Rhett Wyman\/The Guardian<\/p>\n \u201cAn AI piece is not art,\u201d Birrunga says. \u201cIt\u2019s decoration, illustration at best. It doesn\u2019t have cultural content. It doesn\u2019t have connection to countless generations of practice. It\u2019s a quick fix, instant gratification, fast food mentality that is actually poison to us.\u201d<\/p>\n Birrunga still believes the BPP\u2019s acceptance of work generated by AI is \u201ca tacit green light\u201d for the harvesting of First Nations cultural IP. But he figures the point has been made.<\/p>\n So this year, Birrunga says he and five First Nations artists his gallery represents collectively chose to \u201creinsert ourselves\u201d, pitting \u201cAI against AI\u201d \u2013 painting a series of self-portraits that spoke not to artificial intelligence but their \u201cancestral integrity\u201d \u2013 something he says can never be replaced by software.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you make a point and then ghost, then you just remove yourself from the narrative,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u2018We\u2019ve still got our integrity\u2019 \u2026 Gunggari and Kabi Kabi artist Kane Brunjes. Photograph: Rhett Wyman\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Gunggari and Kabi Kabi painter Kane Brunjes\u2019 Ancestral Integrity<\/a> and Kamilaroi artist Elysia Love-Anderson Reflections<\/a> now hang among the BPP finalists.<\/p>\n \u201cWith my work, a lot of what I\u2019m trying to get at is that everything comes from our ancestors,\u201d Love-Anderson says. \u201cThat\u2019s why AI is a big problem for me. AI cannot give a piece what we can. Knowledge that has been passed down from family, from Elders, down multiple generations.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just fake. AI\u2019s just really fake to me.\u201d<\/p>\n Photographer Glenn Hunt won the digital prize in 2020<\/a> but also led the boycott in 2024. He has also decided to enter again, and is a finalist this year with a portrait of Dean Clifford<\/a>, who lives with epidermolysis bullosa, a rare skin disease of such severity that Meta AI once compared his appearance to a \u201czombie costume\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI still feel the same way about AI,\u201d Hunt says. \u201cBut all I can do, in this instance, is create something that\u2019s the opposite to that. I think I\u2019ve done that with Dean. You can\u2019t get more real than he is.\u201d<\/p>\n The irony, Hunt says, is that when Clifford\u2019s selfie went viral, many online believed he was AI-generated.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat a time to be alive,\u201d Hunt says.<\/p>\n Glenn Huny\u2019s portrait of Dean Clifford, who lives with the rare skin disease epidermolysis bullosa. Photograph: Glenn Hunt<\/p>\n The BPP director, Anna Reynolds, says the prize is only open to generative AI works that do not infringe copyright, a rule introduced to \u201cget a handle\u201d on the emerging technology and regulate it.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the argument about yes or no is kind of gone now,\u201d Reynolds says of AI in art. \u201cThere\u2019s more of a more sophisticated argument now, about how you use it as a creative tool \u2026 It\u2019s about control, retaining the human capital, retaining the human creative control. That\u2019s what\u2019s important.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018I think the argument about yes or no is kind of gone now\u2019 \u2026 Anna Reynolds, the director of the Brisbane portrait prize. Photograph: Rhett Wyman\/The Guardian<\/p>\n The prize exhibition will open its doors to the public on Saturday after winners are announced on Friday night. Of the 49 works in the main competition, Ryan\u2019s is the only to declare the use of generative AI.<\/p>\n Given the speed at which AI is shifting the foundations of society, what that ratio might look like in years to come is anyone\u2019s guess.<\/p>\n For Brunjes though, some things will never change.<\/p>\n \u201cRegardless of AI, we\u2019ve still got our integrity \u2013 and our artworks aren\u2019t going anywhere,\u201d the First Nations painter says. \u201cOur stories aren\u2019t going anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Poised above the lady in the red dress is a claw. 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