Annie Parnell
Artist Bio
Annie Parnell is an emerging artist of Irish settler heritage living on Gadigal + Wangal Land. They completed their honours in the Sculpture and Spatial Practice department of the Australian National University in 2021.
Their background in ceramics informs their current work both aesthetically and materially. Yet, in their current work, materials have shifted to occupy metaphorical places. Currently, Parnell is interested in how systems such as kiln firing, AI and performance, impact and transform materials to create meaning.
Parnell has exhibited work locally and internationally and their work is held in private collections in Australia and overseas. Their first solo show was at Strathnairn Arts (Canberra) and their work has been included in multiple group shows including Talente 2021 (Munich). Parnell has received various awards and scholarships, including the Peter and Lena Karmel Honours Scholarship (2021), the Hiroe Swen award (2020) and the Strathnairn Arts Residency (2020).
Artist Statement
okay computer, teach me pottery (2023), is an installation of text-based work and hand-built, raw clay vessels. The pages of Parnell’s Artificial Intelligence (A.I) generated instructional pottery zine, okay computer, teach me pottery, are enlarged and displayed on the walls. The zine records the exchange between the artist and ChatGPT, an AI text generator, where ChatGPT was asked “How do I make a vessel out of clay?”. The prompts were illustrated by DALL·E 2, an A.I. image generator, and the results compiled into a rambling, surrealist set of text and images. The artist then followed the instructions to create clay vessels. And while the vessels are “correct”, they are not “functional”, as the ChatGPT output did not include instructions for them to be fired.