Guanyin:
Confessions of a
Former Carebot
Previous recipients of the Frieze Artist Award include Himali Singh Soin (2019), Alberta Whittle (2020), Sung Tieu (2021), Abbas Zahedi (2022) and Adham Faramawy (2023).
Frieze London opens Thursday 10 October and runs until Sunday 13 October 2024.
Frieze Artist Award 2024
Guanyin: Confessions of a Former Carebot
Lawrence Lek
Forma are delighted to announce that London-based artist and filmmaker Lawrence Lek is the recipient of the Frieze Artist Award 2024. Realised in partnership with Frieze for the sixth consecutive year,the award provides an early or mid-career artist at a pivotal moment in their practice with the opportunity to debut an ambitious new commission at Frieze London.
Chris Rawcliffe, Artistic Director, Forma:
I am incredibly excited that Forma is collaborating with Frieze for the sixth iteration of the Artist Award. Lawrence Lek’s practice carries out essential interrogations into the use of AI and its relationship with the human experience. Combining video games, animation, interactive installation, sound and narrative structures, Lek simultaneously pushes the boundaries of disciplines, and crafts worlds that critique the use of new technologies. Lek’s installations have always thoughtfully considered spatial dynamics and audience experiences, and I thoroughly look forward to seeing such an innovative and topically relevant work realised within the Frieze London fair this year. Congratulations to Lawrence and our friends at Frieze, it’s a privilege to collaborate together.
Lawrence Lek, 'Nox', 2023. Installation view: Solo Exhibition, Las Art Foundation Berlin. Photo: Andrea Rossetti
Lawrence Lek, 'Nox', 2023. Installation view: Solo Exhibition, Las Art Foundation Berlin. Photo: Andrea Rossetti
Lawrence Lek 'Nepenthe' Summer Palace Ruins Edition, 2022. Installation view: Quad Derby. Courtesy the artist. Photo By Damian Griffiths
Lawrence Lek 'Notel' Seoul Edition, 2023. Installation view: Mmca Museum Of Modern And Contemporary Art Seoul.
Lawrence Lek, 'Aidol', 2019. Film Still. Courtesy of the artist and Sadie Coles Hq
Lek’s multimedia installation, Guanyin: Confessions of a Former Carebot, will focus on the eponymous character from his ongoing Sinofuturist cinematic universe. The project will combine narrative worldbuilding and mechanical sculpture into an immersive environment where players gradually uncover the story of Guanyin’s existence. In Lek’s world, Guanyin is a Carebot, a cyborg therapist created to save other AI from the brink of self-destruction. Named after the Buddhist goddess of mercy, Guanyin (literally, ‘the one who listens’) embodies the artist's interest in the spiritual and emotional dimensions of technology.
The audience follows Guanyin as she examines a series of self-driving cars who have been identified for problematic behaviour. Haunting in tone and meditative in intent, the project draws from the idea of 'walking simulators' – a genre of video games in which players discover clues by exploring an environment. Through Lek’s soundtrack for the installation, Guanyin's voice will accompany the player's journey, recounting journal entries, company reports and messages to the nonhuman patients in her care. These dialogues reflect how conversational AI – from the Turing Test to Alexa and modern chatbots – affect our interactions with the world.
Artist Biography
Lawrence Lek is an artist, filmmaker, and musician who unifies diverse practices—architecture, gaming, video, music and fiction—into a continuously expanding cinematic universe. Over the last decade, Lek has incorporated video games and computer-generated animation into site-specific installations which he describes as ‘three dimensional collages of found objects and situations.’ Often featuring interlocking narratives and the recurring figure of the wanderer, his work explores the myth of technological progress in an age of artificial intelligence and social change.
He has exhibited internationally with recent solo exhibitions including NOX, LAS Art Foundation, Berlin (2023); Black Cloud Highway, Sadie Coles HQ, London (2023); Nepenthe (Summer Palace Ruins), QUAD, Derby (2022); Post-Sinofuturism, ZiWU the Bund, Shanghai (2022); Ghostwriter, Center for Contemporary Arts Prague, Prague (2019); Farsight Freeport, HEK House of Electronic Arts Basel, Basel (2019); Nøtel, Urbane Künste Ruhr, Essen (2019); AIDOL 爱道, Sadie Coles HQ, London (2019); Nøtel, Stroom Den Haag, The Hague (2018); 2065, K11 Art Space, Hong Kong (2018). His work has also featured internationally in group shows, biennales and film festivals including 20th Biennale of Sydney, Sydney (2024); Biennale de I’Image en Mouvement 24 (BIM’24), Centre d’Art Contemporian, Geneva; 5th Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kochi (2022); Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul (2022); Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney (2022); IFFR International Film Festival Rotterdam (2020 and 2018); 17th Venice Architecture Biennale, Venice (2021), among others. Lek composes soundtracks and conducts live audio-visual mixes of his films, often incorporating his open-world games; his soundtrack releases include Temple OST (The Vinyl Factory, 2020) and AIDOL OST (Hyperdub, 2020). Lek has been recognised with the 2017 Jerwood/FVU Award and the 2015 Dazed Emerging Artist Award. In 2021 he was the recipient of both the 4th VH Award Grand Prix and the LACMA 2021 Art + Technology Lab Grant. Lek is represented by Sadie Coles HQ, and lives and works in London.