Altarpiece: The Divinity (2025) by Brendan Dawes draws inspiration from a legendary game of Go, where AlphaGo, DeepMind's groundbreaking AI, defeated world champion Lee Sedol. The pivotal "Divine Move", move 37, marked a turning point in the match and is celebrated as an instance of profound creativity and unexpected brilliance. This moment, emblematic of the evolving interplay between human ingenuity and artificial intelligence, anchors Dawes' thought-provoking work.

Rendered as a triptych, the artwork recalls the form of a church altarpiece, juxtaposing tradition and innovation to explore the tension between strategy and spontaneity in an era defined by rapid technological change. The three panels represent the underlying architecture of how all modern computers work as first proposed by John von Neumann: input, processing, output. At its centre is a surreal composition featuring a female figure holding an orb, evoking divinity or a spiritual essence. The imagery is a complex fusion of classical and futuristic aesthetics, and is created from structural models designed by Dawes for each image, which he then developed using the image generation interface ComfyUI.

The central statue, reminiscent of a Renaissance or Baroque sculpture, is surrounded by swirling metallic ribbons, gears, and celestial motifs, forming a halo-like structure that contrasts the organic figure with chaotic technological elements. The work's golden and bronze tones, illuminated by dramatic, high-contrast lighting, give it a radiant, almost celestial quality.

Symbolically, the central figure embodies themes of creation, power, and the intersection of natural and artificial worlds, while the swirling elements suggest chaos, innovation, and interconnectedness. The accompanying ERC-721 token bridges the digital and physical realms, adding a dynamic layer that speaks to the convergence of art, technology, and the immaterial.

Through Altarpiece: The Divinity, Brendan Dawes invites viewers to contemplate the shifting boundaries of intelligence, creativity, and spirituality in the age of AI, offering a profound meditation on what it means to innovate, create, and believe in a rapidly evolving world.