KSENIAVOY.ART - Works

The classic uncanny valley runs in one direction. A machine tries to replicate the human, gets close enough, and something in that proximity becomes disturbing. AI extends this: it attempts to replicate human cognition and expression so completely that the question of difference stops being rhetorical to some. The artificial, under our guidance, is constantly reaching toward the organic, at times achieving an eerie effect of the uncanny, yet mostly falling short.

Plants reverses the vector.

The Plants structures look as if AI hallucinated organic life in the confusion of seas of data and an amalgamation of prompts. The sculptures are plant-like, strange, and growing in no particular direction. The sound they produce is electronic, artificial, at times computer-like, yet produced in response to light and human presence as if a living thing responding to its environment. Organisms imitate their surroundings to survive competition. AI generated imagery currently floods the contemporary art space, sneaking in or making a statement, and in this environment Plants are handmade organisms as if adapted into wearing an appropriate costume to stay visible in this exhausted ecosystem. The camouflage goes further than survival requires, the sculptures end up genuinely between categories, and the categories themselves become harder to trust. Are we in an uncanny valley or a circus? AI art, without the AI.

Each Plant is a note. An arrangement of them becomes a garden or a score, shifting with the light, the number of active sculptures, how many people are present. The exhibitions are variables.

Plants was first presented at Sound Art Society Gallery in Helsinki in 2024. The following year the work travelled to three venues: Asbestos Art Space in Helsinki, Kulturhus Björkboda in Kemiö, and Titanik Gallery in Turku, where an expanded version of the installation was shown with new sculptures added to the series. The work was also presented to a wider audience at the Outsider Art Festival in Helsinki in 2025.