A many headed god is caught in a moment of transformation, their golden form simultaneously solid yet liquid. In a new series of algorithmically determined pieces, the Colombian artist Juan Covelli has utilised a GAN, or Generative Adversarial Network, to process a database of sculpted deities, a dream enacted by a machine.

In this new edition, Covelli presents a single moment of the dream, Cacique (2020) roughly meaning the native chief. A comment upon the ritual processes used to connect us to gods and ancestors, Covelli’s use of an algorithm also poses a critique of Western museological and archival conventions, practices that aim to create empirical knowledge but often allow true understanding to escape.