TOXIC MAN
Video, 2025
About the artwork
Toxic Man is a searing pop-art critique of superficiality, rendered through the lens of AI video. This work presents a hyper-saturated vision of LA through romance, driving, and shimmering swimming pools only to dismantle it.
We explore the world that’s desperate to remain "pretty," through tireless maintenance. On its’ surface, scenes are comprised of romantic tropes. Couples in cars, bathtubs, scenic drives, and glamorous parties. Witnessing the disintegration of the "good life." By utilizing AI’s tendency to hallucinate, we expose the fragility of the image. The "Toxic Man" is not merely a character, but the culture of surface-level perfection itself. A beautiful, rotting simulation of keeping up with the facade.
ABCDJ
Audio explanation
Listen to ABCDJ discuss this work.
ABCDJ is an artist and musician based in Chicago, Illinois. Working with AI image, video, and music tools since 2021, their practice bridges experimental technology and emotional realism. With a background in music production and songwriting, ABCDJ explores themes of romance, solitude, and surrealism through what they describe as a “bubblegum slacker” aesthetic—a fusion of nostalgic imperfection and contemporary digital media. Their work has been exhibited internationally, including Contract of Fiction at P61 Gallery in Berlin and The Noocene: Computation and Cosmology from Antikythera to AI at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale.