2024

multimedia installation, video game, sculpture, video, duration variable

"You'd think that Carebots are a happy bunch,

but we're all super-competitive,really.

Insecurity is part of our programming.

Every season, we get rewarded if our cars perform well,

but stragglers get wiped. I've seen it happen."

‍Lawrence Lek's multimedia installation for the Frieze Artist Award, Guanyin: Confessions of a Former Carebot, will focus on the eponymous character from his ongoing Sinofuturist cinematic universe. The project will combine narrative worldbuilding and mechanical sculpture into an immersive environment where players gradually uncover the story of Guanyin’s existence. In Lek’s world, Guanyin is a Carebot, a cyborg therapist created to save other AI from the brink of self-destruction. Named after the Buddhist goddess of mercy, Guanyin (literally, ‘the one who listens’) embodies the artist's interest in the spiritual and emotional dimensions of technology.

The dashboard sculpture presents Guanyin in a ‘royal ease’ pose, which became associated with the deity in the late ninth century. In their new incarnation, Guanyin keeps watch over all sentient creatures, both human and machine.   

The audience follows Guanyin as she examines a series of self-driving cars who have been identified for problematic behaviour. Haunting in tone and meditative in intent, the project draws from the idea of 'walking simulators' – a genre of video games in which players discover clues by exploring an environment. Guanyin's thoughts accompany the player's journey, recounting journal entries, company reports and messages to the nonhuman patients in her care. These dialogues reflect how conversational AI – from the Turing Test to Alexa and modern chatbots – affect our interactions with the world.

Lek is an artist, filmmaker and musician who unifies diverse practices – architecture, gaming,video, music and writing – through the lens of science fiction. Over the last decade, he has incorporated video games and computer-generated animation into site-specific installations which he describes as ‘three-dimensional collages of found objects and situations’. His work often features interlocking narratives and addresses the moral dilemmas around AI while exploring the creative potential of digital worldbuilding, shot through with dark, absurdist humour. 

The recipient of the Frieze London Artist Award 2024 was selected by a jury of leading industry figures: Canan Batur (curator and researcher), Mariam Zulfiqar (Director, Artangel), Eva Langret (Director, Frieze London), and Chris Rawcliffe (Artistic Director, Forma).  Lek succeeds Adham Faramawy (2023), Abbas Zahedi (2022), Sung Tieu (2021), Alberta Whittle (2020) and Himali Singh Soin (2019) as the recipient of the Frieze Artist Award.

‍