Misalignment

collage and gouache 2025 19”h, 21.5”w   

Misalignment presents the dismembered figure of a Golem, its body assembled from rusted oil drums. The fractured form lies in uneasy relation to the distant horizon, where oil refineries stand as stark reminders of global dependence on fossil fuels to power the infrastructures of contemporary life. The juxtaposition of mythic body and industrial landscape underscores the entanglement of ancient narrative, ecological crisis, and technological reliance. The title references a concept from machine learning: “misalignment,” the moment when an artificial intelligence system’s objectives diverge from the values or intentions of its designers, often with unpredictable and harmful outcomes. This notion finds a historical analogue in the legend of the 16th-century Prague Golem, which, though created to defend the Jewish community, exceeded the bounds of its purpose and ultimately endangered those it was meant to protect.In this work, the dismembered Golem becomes a visual metaphor for fractured or misdirected code—a cautionary image of creation unmoored from its intended function. Through this collapse of form and meaning, Misalignment draws attention to the risks inherent in the tools we fashion, whether mystical, mechanical, or digital.