MODEL: [TBD]

Igùn: Prototype XI / Letter to the King is an AI agent that generates 3D compositional studies for a missing bronze-cast message addressed to the exiled Oba Ovonramwen in 1899. Drawing from a predefined library of classical Benin Bronze symbols, the agent generates daily 3D compositional studies that I review and refine as part of a larger 3D printing workflow.

MODEL: [TBD]
RESEARCH COMMISSIONED BY: Teachers College, Columbia University

J.U.J.U. (Just Unearthing Jacob’s Ubini) is an AI-reconstruction of the concentric Walls of Benin based on oral historical documentation by Chief Jacob U. Egharevba.

Ubini = Benin

MODEL: GEMINI 3

Venus of Benin is “a girl who dreams of leisure” (hooks, 1995). She is a real-time, data-driven comic that unfolds on an online platform rather than across the pages of a comic book.
WEB APP ^BETA

MODEL: GPT-4o (vision), conditioned on images of APOLLO 18-0000000557

The Museum Studies web app invites museum visitors to register sightings of my sculpture, APOLLO 18-0000000557, in situ. Using image recognition, the system identifies APOLLO 18-0000000557 within user-submitted scans, and generates a publicly accessible record of its location. This app operates as 1/3 data pipelines that contribute to my ongoing assessment of APOLLO 18-0000000557’s condition and circulation.

No download required. The app is browser-based & mobile-device only.
WEB APP ^BETA

MEDIA: COPPER- AND BRONZE- INFUSED FILAMENT, STAINLESS STEEL
C0MMISSIONED BY: MUSEUM DE FUNDATIE, ZWOLLE
ON VIEW: FEBRUARY, 2026 @ MUSEUM DE FUNDATIE, ZWOLLE

WEB APP ^BETA

MODELS: SORA-1, SORA-2, VEO-2, VEO-3
TWO-CHANNEL VIDEO: 6 MINUTES
C0MMISSIONED BY: MUSEUM DE FUNDATIE, ZWOLLE

The Sky Kings ( Acts I-II ) is a supernatural horror film that imagines a future in which aerospace engineers draw inspiration from the Sky Kings of ancient Benin. The term Sky Kings translates the Benin word Ogiso , a title once borne by the kingdom’s earliest rulers, who are mythologically understood to have descended from the cosmos. The Ogisos ruled Igodomigodo (later known as the Benin Empire) from 600-1000 A.D.

In this work, I invoke the Sky Kings specifically in reference to Ogiso Emose and Ogiso Orhorho the only women documented to have held the Ogiso title , and to have ever ruled Benin. No woman has ascended the Benin throne since the end of Orhorho’s reign in 1030 A.D. WATCH THE TRAILER

MODEL: RODIN DIFFUSION, GPT-IMAGE-1
MEDIA: COPPER-INFUSED FILAMENT, STAINLESS STEEL
C0MMISSIONED BY: MUSEUM DE FUNDATIE, ZWOLLE

Artificial Idia (AI), v1.0.1 is an attempt to reimagine a 16th-century ivory mask of Iyoba (Queen) Idia of Benin Kingdom through image- and 3D-synthesis. Across a multi-stage pipeline, I purposefully abstract and devolve the original form into an artificial variant, "a model of a model" (Birhane, 2025). The final piece is materialized via an unpolished, copper-infused filament.

This work is based on a repatriated mask of Iyoba Idia, formerly held at the Linden-Museum Stuttgart, and one of four known looted masks of Iyoba Idia.

REFERENCE
Birhane, A. (2025). Cheap science, real harm: the cost of replacing human participation with synthetic data. In Synthetic Data Workshop at the Aarhus 2025 Conference.

VIEW THE AI PIPELINE

MODEL: IMAGEN-3

VIDEO MODEL: SORA-1
AUDIO MODEL: MUSICFX
SINGLE CHANNEL: 1 MINUTE 37 SECONDS

Regina Gloriana (2024) draws inspiration from two supernatural horror films produced in 1990s Nollywood (Nigeria’s cinema)—Nneka, the Pretty Serpent (1994) and Karishika (1996). Using text-based prompts in SORA, I reinterpret the visual effects that these films deployed to animate Mami Wata—a femme-presenting, amphibious, and shape-shifting West African God—as a terrifying figure. These 90s evangelical films not only sought to dissuade Mami Wata devotion but also arbitrated Pentecostal-Christian values through uncanny VFX that continues to haunt my imagination. For this reason, I have yet to watch the 2020 sequel of Nneka, the Pretty Serpent.

MODEL: MIDJOURNEY (V5, V6)

Melanin-rich medieval depictions of the Virgin Mary and Child Christ (also known as Black Madonna, 12C-15C) have ignited centuries of scholarly speculation. Did medieval, European artists delibrately depict Madonnas of African-descent? Did St. Luke paint the Black Madonna of Częstochowa during the Virgin Mary's lifetime? From a live painting session? And if so, is St. Luke's Madonna a faithful representation of the Virgin Mary's racial heritage?

Various theories have been proposed to explain the Black Madonna's complexion, from the technical— oxidation of silver-based pigments, smoke damage from the burning of votive candles and incense, material degradation—to interpretations anchored in biblical text, notably the Songs of Solomon (1:5-6), which celebrates the beauty of Blackness: "I am Black but beautiful, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon. Do not gaze at me because I am dark, because the sun has looked upon me." This perspective stands in stark contrast to interpretations that equate darkness with sin, as expressed in 1 John 1:5: "God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all."

Departing from these theories of "unintentional Blackness", my AI-generated portraits intentionally celebrate the Black Madonna as an unmistakably, unquestionably, unambiguously Black divinity.

MODEL: MIDJOURNEY (V5.1)

Beaded Braids Study examines how Midjourney (v 5.1) visualizes bead embellishments on braided Black hair. The text prompt includes visual cues from the bold, unapologetic hair and make-up worn by the legendary Kalakuta Queens—a collective of 27 performers and wives of the celebrated Nigerian musician and political activist, Fela Kuti.

The series uncovers how Midjourney (v 5.1) invokes associations between beaded Black hairstyles and Western, colonial conceptions of African indigeneity—the antithesis of the modern imagination, and perhaps, its distorted reflection. The resulting AI-generated images often reflect colonial fantasies of the African woman: "uncivilized," "unmodernized," "unclothed," living outdoors, and adorned with bead-like embellishments.

MODEL: MIDJOURNEY (V5)

In Nigeria's Niger Delta region, all bodies of water are revered as sacred dwelling for Mami Wata—a femme-presenting, amphibious, metamorphic God whose influence spans fertility, wealth, and healing. Traditionally, artistic depictions of Mami Wata have aimed to capture the entity’s enigmatic nature, manifesting in various forms—a mermaid with non-African traits, “pseudo-Hindu snake charmer”, “human-fish goat-priestess”, mudfish, among other manifestations.

These AI-generated portraits, however, take a different approach by drawing inspiration from Nigerian folktales (Ogboro-Cole, 2015) that depict Mami Wata exclusively in human form. In these narratives, Mami Wata often assumes the role of a femme fatale or a benevolent stranger, intriguing and beguiling in equal measure.