Alongside these images sourced from national archives are recent artworks by four Aotearoa New Zealand-based artists: Denise Batchelor, Jane Dodd, John Ward Knox and Whanganui artist Brit Bunkley.
Bunkley used artificial intelligence (AI) in one third of his four moving-image works; blender software, 3D Studio and other technology were used to create the exhibits “Archive”, “Transit”, “Natural Intelligence”, and the award-winning “Dear Hart, How they dream. How we dream”.
Across a wall and a smaller video screen, viewers are presented with images of animals in empty, human-constructed spaces.
A moose appears in a subway carriage, a zebra in a bus; deer stroll through a vast, white mansion, chew cud on a king-size bed; two mandrills in Victorian garb kiss, and a crocodile handbag does some rather strange things.
Behind these eerie images are sculptures of godwits by John Ward Knox that visitors are invited to pick up and handle.
Could the artifice of the AI medium also be part of a message that the human species is in danger of becoming more alienated from our instinctual, animal selves and from one another?
Curated by Megan Dunn, of City Gallery Wellington, the idea for an exhibition about why people love to look at animals and anthropomorphise them emerged from seeing a llama being led through Wellington streets, to be blessed among other pets at the Cathedral of St Paul.
She had also read art critic John Berger’s 1977 essay, “Why Look at Animals?”
Berger challenged the sentimental way people view animals in zoos, arguing that animals are marginalised because of loss of their natural habitats and the wild places in the world.
Dunn, who knew Bunkley’s work, approached him to create moving images based on the archival photographs.
Bunkley’s use of AI attracted protest by environmental groups in Wellington and on social media so he researched their concerns about environmental damage caused by the sophisticated algorithm.
Bunkley used three different AI models, estimating the energy consumption of a prompt and an AI video compared with other human activities, including owning a pet and driving an EV.
“A video is 190g 3.8 thousand chat prompts and it uses about half the energy [of when] I do a 10-second rendering [using] my blender which is the old-fashioned version of digital animation used in most of my animations”.
Bunkley’s work, “Dear Hart, How they dream. How we dream”, was inspired by events during Covid lockdowns when animals entered once people-busy spaces.
He says, “deer came out of forests during lockdown and started appearing in paddocks, lounging around. I took that idea further: what if humans had simply vanished, and animals moved through our constructed world as if they’d always owned it?
“My works are built from a mix of 3D animation, compositing and in some cases AI generation – but regardless of the tools, they’re meant to feel like dream footage, with that quality dreams have where the wrong things are in the wrong places, and somehow that feels completely inevitable.”
Artist talk: Brit Bunkley – Art and AI
Date: Thursday, May 14
Time: 7.30-8.30pm
Whanganui-based artist and film-maker Brit Bunkley discusses the pragmatics and politics of making art with AI. Join us for a discussion with Bunkley who will give insights into the making of his latest work “Archive”, commissioned for the exhibition Messengers.
Messengers is on display at Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery until June 21, 2026.
