Resonare Velata
Mixed media sculpture, 2025, 13.75” × 25.12” × 20”
wire, cloth, plaster, resin, various acrylic paints and finishes, vinyl stickers, fabric, mirror base
Created for the Syntax of Sorrow exhibition with Colonna Contemporary, January 2026
Resonare Velata (2025) is a mixed-media sculpture measuring 13.75 × 25.12 × 20 inches, constructed from a wire armature fortified with plaster, cloth, resin, acrylics, and draped in repurposed red fabric drawn from prior photographic explorations of love’s forms. Evoking a prehistoric cavern veiled in crimson, the work originates from an ephemeral 2022 DALL·E output prompted by the question, “What does love mean to AI?”, positioning the sculpture as a material response to early generative speculation.
The silver interior bears machine-produced stickers arranged hierarchically, mirroring the stratified narratives of prehistoric cave walls. Symbols from AI research with Grok occupy the lowest level as newer additions, DALL·E-derived motifs appear in higher placements, marking older data. These include an alien head denoting computational detachment, vigilant eyes implying surveillance, handprints suggesting gestural presence, nebulous hearts as synthetic affection, dashes as syntactic bridges, and reversed phrases such as “All Avianting” and “Lovee I’s Love.” These fragments resolve only through anamorphic inversion when reflected in the circular mirror base, implicating the viewer’s own reflection in perceptual completion.
Resonare Velata interrogates AI’s data-reflective mimicry of human sentiment, emphasizing its incapacity for innate human experience, wherein simulation yields only alien echoes. It posits a syntax of sorrow derived from inherited language rather than lived feeling, aligning with Syntax of Sorrow’s exploration of mechanical grief embedded within artificial systems. Through its taut shroud and cavernous form, the work asserts human-made agency amid digital simulation, inviting contemplation of emotion’s authentic essence.
The sculpture is a unique one-of-one artwork accompanied by a corresponding digital asset.
“Try as you will, you cannot annihilate that eternal relic of the human heart, love.” - Victor Hugo