In an age where images are generated and forgotten in seconds, there remain works that are not the outcome of random clicks or accidental outputs. Instead, they are the product of hours — sometimes days — of deliberation, precise prompt engineering, and an artist’s relentless pursuit of form and meaning. The “Cage” series belongs to this second category: a body of work where AI is employed not as a hands-off generator, but as a versatile tool, entirely directed and shaped by the artist’s vision.
The visual DNA of these pieces lies in Persian illumination and miniature painting — with their golden spirals, complex geometric motifs, and refined ornamentation cultivated over centuries. Here, however, this legacy passes through the filter of contemporary visual language, intertwined with architectural forms and modern urban textures. The result is a set of images where traditional motifs are no longer confined to the margins of sacred scripts but placed in the very heart of today’s cultural conversations.
Why “Cage”? The cage is both a metaphor and a motif — a frame that represents visible and invisible boundaries enclosing thought, movement, and identity. In some frames, these cages appear as tangible wooden or architectural enclosures; in others, unfinished buildings, cranes, and skeletal concrete structures stand in for the same limiting walls.
Their inclusion is deliberate: they speak to social conditions, urban upheaval, displacement, and the subtle constraints imposed by man-made systems. These buildings do not merely inhabit the background; they are the boundaries — reminders that the structures shaping our skylines also shape our lives.
To an untrained eye, images created with AI may seem the product of pure chance. Yet each frame in “Cage” exists because of tens — sometimes hundreds — of carefully constructed prompts, adjustments, and iterations. This is not a slot machine of pixels but a long, layered dialogue between artist and algorithm.
The artist provides language, nuance, and cultural memory. The AI responds with computations that bend to that will, gradually converging toward a vision that is premeditated, deeply personal, and socially resonant.
“Cage” is not merely an aesthetic experiment. It is a meditation on freedom’s scope, the weight of environment upon thought, and the tension between protection and confinement. The earth-toned palette, the interplay of architectural mass and ornamental delicacy, and the deliberate pacing of the exhibition layout all serve to amplify this conversation.
The few images shared here only offer a glimpse. The complete visual and conceptual journey unfolds in the curated space of the online gallery, where the sequence of works follows a narrative arc designed for reflection and immersion.
🔗 View the full exhibition on Artsteps:
artsteps.com/view/68b58311ab8f1f14e0880584
