A conceptual artist managed to secretly hang an AI-generated artwork on the walls of the National Museum Cardiff in Wales, where it remained undetected for several hours before being discovered by staff. The unauthorized installation, created by artist Elias Marrow, sparked conversations about artificial intelligence in art, museum security, and social issues affecting children in the United Kingdom.
The piece, titled "Empty Plate" (2024), is a digital print that mimics an oil portrait of a young boy in a school uniform holding a bare plate on his lap with a somber expression. Marrow installed the work in the museum's contemporary art wing, complete with accompanying wall text that did not reveal its AI origins. According to the artist's website, the image leaves viewers questioning whether the child "waits to be fed, punished, or simply forgotten."
While the AI-generated portrait appears realistic at first glance, including giving the subject the correct number of fingers, closer inspection reveals telltale signs of artificial intelligence creation. These include jumbled letters in the alphabet on the boy's uniform logo and an overall yellowish tinge throughout the work. Despite these indicators, hundreds of museum visitors and staff members were fooled by the piece during its brief display.
Marrow, who identifies himself as a "Conceptual Artist. Cultural Surgeon" in his email signature, explained that he conceived the project in response to rising hunger and poverty in the United Kingdom and Wales, calling these issues "subjects close to my heart." His concerns are backed by sobering statistics from a 2024 report titled "Empty Plates and Cold Homes," which found that among over 2,000 participants surveyed in the UK, a quarter reported struggling to provide food for their children at some point during the previous year.
Regarding his decision to use artificial intelligence in creating the artwork, Marrow told the BBC that he believes AI "is here to stay" and that attempting to "gatekeep its capability would be against the beliefs I hold dear about art." The unauthorized display was eventually discovered when a museum employee was asked about the piece by visitors and struggled to provide an explanation for its presence.
This latest intervention represents just one installment in Marrow's ongoing series of unauthorized museum additions designed to challenge how artistic value is created, perceived, and marketed. His previous guerrilla art installations have included placing a spray-painted shoe mounted on a cylinder at the Tate in London and creating wall text for an artwork that may or may not have actually been displayed at the Bristol Museum.
The National Museum Cardiff has not responded to requests for comment from media outlets, but confirmed to multiple news sources that the artwork was removed after staff were alerted to its unauthorized presence. Marrow confirmed that museum officials have not contacted him regarding the incident and that he does not expect to have the piece returned to him.
In a gesture that reinforces the social message behind his artistic intervention, Marrow announced that while "Empty Plate" has been "gifted" to the National Museum Cardiff, he plans to donate one of the original sketches that inspired the work to a South Wales food bank. "It may not hold much value, but it feels like the right resting place," the artist stated, suggesting that the sketch might be more meaningful in a location that directly addresses the hunger issues his artwork sought to highlight.
