I have evolved vanitas still life motifs from the 17th century into the future, where two thirds of all species are extinct and photos have nothing to do with reality. Artificial intelligence has created my art.
Imagination cannot beat the magical multitude of nature. That’s something that humbles me, deep within. But now we are in the middle of a mass extinction, species are disappearing. I wish it wasn’t true. It’s like the fairy tale ends and our grandchildren won’t get to read it. The world goes from being magical to simple. We take too much for granted.
When I started with my series Vanitas, I could never in my wildest imagination believe that so many species would be endangered now. I have always documented what species are included in my artwork. Now it seems like I’ve written an obituary. It was a tribute to the amazing diversity of nature, but before my eyes the series turns into a memorial grove of plants and animals that no longer exist.
In recent times there has been another drastic change, namely the way we view photos. I use old photographs of plants and animals in my art, because I want the individuals you see to have existed. But the connection between photography and reality is disappearing. Photography now has less relation to reality than ever: filters in apps, photo editing programs and artificial intelligence, make the images that wash over us more poetry than reality. Our magical world is being taken over by a digital dream.
As a consequence of the extinction of species and photography’s lost contact with reality, I have let an artificial intelligence make the new Vanitas still life for me. The contact with reality is broken, what remains is a dystopia, a cry for help.
