Minneapolis's Walker Art Center is facing a backlash from some visitors who insist that artist Olalekan Jeyifous has used generative AI in his exhibition “Hydricosmic Litanies.” Jeyifous, an architect and designer born in Nigeria, says the confusion stems from how audiences perceive his work. His installation, which draws on African diasporic cosmologies, uses software that may include AI elements.

Museum chief curator Henriette Huldisch acknowledged that while Jeyifous’s practice includes a range of sophisticated tools with embedded AI, nothing in the show was created from simple prompts. The Walker plans to add clarifying text about this issue to the exhibition soon, admitting they are ‘listening and learning’.

Jeyifous has shown his work at prestigious venues such as the Studio Museum in Harlem, and his practice is not entirely free of AI influence. However, he works iteratively, using software like Photoshop or 3D modeling selectively. An unnamed museum staffer incorrectly stated that Jeyifous used AI for everything, leading to visitor frustration.

The artist's work reflects on the tension between ecological and cultural balance, disrupted by colonization and industrialization. Even if AI plays a role, Jeyifous insists it is not about prompting images but about the iterative process of creation and re-creation.