[no title] 1968

Curator: This diptych by Harold Cohen presents us with two close-up views of eyes, rendered in a striking palette of purple and gold. Editor: They’re unsettling. The color feels almost toxic, and the mirrored composition makes them seem like they’re watching, judging. Curator: Cohen’s work often probed the intersection of art and artificial intelligence. In considering his wider oeuvre, these eyes might symbolize the gaze of a nascent AI. Editor: Eyes, of course, have always been powerful symbols: windows to the soul, divine vision, or even the evil eye, casting spells. This piece gives us a contemporary take on this lineage. Curator: Absolutely, but framed through our current anxieties about surveillance, power and control. Editor: Precisely, they manage to be both ancient and frighteningly modern at the same time. Curator: A reflection of our complicated relationship to technology, then? Editor: Maybe… it's something to keep looking at.