Leitmotif, Nihilist, Epitome

INSTALLATION | MP4 | PNG | 3D SCULPTURE | GLB | DIMENSIONS VARIABLE | 2023

“The enlightened proletariat’s chip on the shoulder. 

Reading without recourse to talk it over.

Tripping over pronunciations.

Leitmotif, Nihilist, Epitome.”

— Ronnie Angel Pope

LEITMOTIF, NIHILIST, EPITOME is the face of a poem birthed and formed in AI from the words of Ronnie Angel Pope. Between physical, digital, and virtual objects, the installation invokes the oral tradition of poetry, when verse breathes into physical dimension. In this moment, the pronounced poem takes on a singular form with each reading and evokes the world, memories, and voice of the speaker.

Using a series of AI models to translate text to body, the process captures an anomalous variation from repeated generative readings. Created in the isolation of AI and responding to Pope’s verse, the artwork trips over its pronunciation to ask, ‘what is the embodiment of the ill-fitting word?’

FEATURED IN

conVERSEverse | poem = acquired. 08 May 2024.

theVERSEverse x Mad Arts Museum | “National Poetry Month and the Mad Arts Acquisition.” Panel with Anne Spalter, Pierre Gervois, Laurence Fuller, Nicole Tallman, lorepunk, May Naibo, Shannon Chen See, moderated by Elisabeth Sweet and Mark Aptakin. 30 April 2024. Online.

Tezos @ South Beach: Nautilus Miami + South Beach Takeover. Refraction x theVERSEverse. Miami, FL. 06 December 2023.

VoyageLA | Meet Connie Bakshi. 02 October 2023.

NFTuesdayLA | “In Conversation with theVERSEverse.” Panel with Connie Bakshi, Ellie Pritts, Carla Gannis, Katie Peyton Hofstadter, and Chris Wood, moderated by Elisabeth Sweet. 20 June 2023. Los Angeles, CA.

Lumen Prize Crypto Art Award Shortlist. theVERSEverse x L’Avant Galerie Vossen x exhibited.at. 

L’Avant Galerie Vossen | POÈME OBJKT SBJKT Exhibition Catalogue. May 2023. 

L’Avant Galerie Vossen x theVERSEverse | “POÈME SBJKT Curatorial Tour”. Hosted by Elisabeth Sweet. 25 May 2023. Paris, France.

POÈME SBJKT. L’Avant Galerie Vossen x theVERSEverse. Paris, France. 25 May — 15 July 2023.

COLLECT AT OBJKT.COM. (ACQUIRED BY MAD ARTS MUSEUM)