First seen at HMKV: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art acquires work by Jake Elwes

First seen at HMKV: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art acquires work by Jake Elwes

The HMKV is delighted that the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) has acquired the work A Deepfake Drag Utopia (movement by Wet Mess) (2023) by Jake Elwes for its permanent collection.

‘First seen at HMKV’, wrote Rudolf Frieling, curator and head of the Media Art department at SFMOMA, in his message to HMKV. Back in 2022, the HMKV presented Elwes' work The Zizi Show (2020) as part of the exhibition House of Mirrors: Artificial Intelligence as Phantasm. The exhibition challenged common clichés about AI and addressed, among other things, hidden human labour, algorithmic prejudice and discrimination, as well as our projections and fantasies about AI. This acquisition by SFMOMA emphasises the importance of the HMKV as an international exhibition venue for contemporary media art.

Jake Elwes: A Deepfake Drag Utopia (movement by Wet Mess), 2023

This modular multi-channel video installation is part of Elwes' ongoing Zizi project (2019-present), which explores the intersection of AI and drag performance. The work consists of life-size deepfake videos of London drag performers animated by the improvised movements of drag legend Wet Mess. By bringing drag aesthetics and complex movements to AI, Elwes demonstrates both the limits and creative potential of machine learning in exploring queerness and queer performance.

Click here for the free exhibition magazine ‘House of Mirrors’.