Heke Mai, an artwork created by AI, is one of the finalist entries in the Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Awards 2023.
Heke Mai, an artwork created by AI, is one of the finalist entries in the Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Awards 2023.
An artwork created by artificial intelligence (AI) and Photoshop has made the shortlist for a $20,000 Māori art award.
The piece, Heke Mai, is one of 44 finalist artworks for the Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award 2023 - something which has shocked even the artist himself.
The award, a partnership between the Office of the Kiingitanga and the New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata, was launched in 2020 to inspire a new generation of emerging Māori artists to create portraits of their tūpuna [ancestors].
Entries were open to emerging Māori artists who either created an artwork within the last two years or wished to create an artwork especially for the competition, using any visual medium, with whakapapa connections to the depicted tūpuna.
Tauwhare Pa artist Robert Pritchard-Blunt’s work was a picture of his maternal great-great-grandmother, Rakapa Rakapa Tarapiipipi, of Ngāti Hauā.
“To be honest, I was really surprised that I was shortlisted,” he said.
“I was transparent about the use of AI ... for me, it’s your intention and how you use it.”
Pritchard-Blunt spent about four days putting various prompts into the AI programme to get the image he wanted, experimenting with different descriptions until he got something that looked and felt right. Then he spent another week and a half using Photoshop and other digital programmes to further develop the work.
Prompts he tried included “native Māori” and multiple descriptions of her facial features and skin tones, which he had to guess at based on pictures of other relatives, as Tarapiipipi never had her photo taken or picture painted.
“AI is sort of creating something out of nothing. I’m sort of just taking stabs in the dark.
“It was really difficult to get Māori images because it’s an algorithm and there’s not much online.”
He intended for the picture to have a Romantic look, like European paintings did at the time. While he didn’t believe Māori people of that time would have looked how he presented her in the image, he thought if she were to have been painted, it would have been in that style.
Pritchard-Blunt has thought often about whether his piece deserves to have been shortlisted for the award.
“In a way, yes, I actually do. Yes, because I was transparent about it in my submissions, and the judges felt like it deserved to be there. That’s their choice.”
He intended to “start a conversation”, and noted technology and AI was fast becoming a large part of many people’s lives.
“The world’s living now in a hyper-reality,” he said. “You’re living in the field of vision of your phone, pretty much.”
Heke Mai, by Robert Pritchard-Blunt.
Jaenine Parkinson, director of the New Zealand Portrait Gallery, said the use of AI in art and competitions was being legally tested internationally, and it would be interesting to see how those test cases played out.
“Artists are using AI as a tool as they have used and experimented with all different types of media and tools throughout history,” she said.
“I was struck by what the artist says about it, in that they are trying to look back and imagine their tūpuna and are using the tools available to them.”
Artists challenged the system, made people think and provoked people with their work, she said.
Parkinson noted the competition was open to work in any medium. Entries this year included spoken word, carved pou and glass pieces.
“The range is phenomenal.”
The award comes with a first-place prize of $20,000, and the runner-up and Forsyth Barr People’s Choice awards carry a prize of $2500 each.
Other entries use mediums such as raranga [weaving], pounamu, stainless steel, photography, ceramics and oil painting.
The judges are portrait artist Graham Hoete, aka “Mr G” (Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Ranginui), researcher, artist, arts educator and curator Steve Gibbs (Ngāi Tāmanuhiri, Rongowhakaata, Ngāti Rongomaiwahine) and artist Lisa Reihana (Ngā Puhi, Ngāti Hine, Ngāi Tūteauru, Ngāi Tupoto), who is known around the world for her portraits and digital art.
The winning artworks will be announced on May 24 and the exhibition will be shown for free at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakata in Shed 11 on Wellington’s waterfront from May 25 to August 20. Finalist artworks will then tour the country.
