‘Mall of America’ is an AI-collaborative post-photography project that revisits the abandoned malls and shopping centers that once defined American consumer culture. Growing up in the 1980s, I feel a complicated pull toward these spaces—equal parts nostalgia for their promise and revulsion at the excess they represent.

Joan Didion called malls “pyramids to the boom years,” and I see them as just that: monuments to an era of abundance that now feels hollow. Their decay evokes Ruinenlust, the strange allure of ruins—a poignant reminder of impermanence and the inevitability of decline.

Using AI to re-imagine these spaces has added a surreal, dreamlike dimension to this exploration. The technology transforms my memories—already fragmented by time—into uncanny landscapes that are both familiar and unsettling.

This series reflects on loss, both personal and collective. These crumbling malls become meditations on grief—not only for a childhood shaped by their allure but also for the environmental and cultural toll of our unchecked consumption.

| from the ‘Mall of America’ series | artist: Danielle King | medium: PNG, 8192 x 8192 pixels | minted: November 11, 2024