James ross
“UNTITLED” (PURGE OF THE LAST BETA MALE) DEPICTS THE DEATH OF THE VERY LAST HUMAN MAN AT THE HANDS OF THEIR ANDROID CREATIONS.
In it, the artist satirically imagines a speculative future wherein a super-intelligent AI develops along its present trajectory to become an oppressive authoritarian that enforces an unattainable interpretation of hyper-masculinity.
Technocrats of the present-day construct the AI’s android form after their own — a white cisgender man — reflecting the prevailing racial and gender disparities which persist at contemporary technology firms.
Trained on the heteronormative datasets and the prejudices pervasive within Silicon Valley, the imagined AI becomes so radicalized in its interpretation of “correct” gender performance that it seeks out and eliminates any human man who does not meet its flawed criteria of utmost masculine perfection.
Though portrayed through an intentionally exaggerated scenario, the artist’s vision of a dystopian future critiques conditions of the present-day internet and addresses the genuine danger posed by technologies built on gender, sexual, and racial biases.
James Ross, “Untitled (purge of the last beta male),” 2022, image courtesy of Sheridyn Villarreal
James Ross is a Chicago-based painter whose practice imagines revisionist histories of Western Europe which center the Black and queer experience. Ross is due to graduate from Columbia College Chicago in May 2023 with a BFA and concentration in painting.
They can be found on Instagram at @eye.am.james.