"${num} Women" delves into the fascinating overlap of traditional mediumistic art and modern generative techniques, drawing inspiration from Fernand Desmoulin's visionary works.
Influenced by Desmoulin's painting "Seven Women," "${num} Women" embraces the chaotic beauty of generative art to create a series of endlessly diverse artworks. Almost as if channelling Desmoulin's mediumistic process, the project combines the ethereal essence of mediumistic art with the randomness of code-generated compositions, where the number, position, and scale of the women depicted change with each iteration. Similar to Desmoulin's art, these compositions exude a dark, unsettling strangeness, evoking a sensation of being watched.
"${num} Women" boldly breaks away from conventional artistic boundaries, inviting you to explore the intriguing parallels between unconscious inspiration and generative randomness.
"Seven Women" by Fernand Desmoulin is available as 'Copyright Free' by The Finnish National Gallery under CCO Licence. This generative artwork was my submission for Combine24 by The Finnish National Gallery. Further information about my submission follows:
Upon reading the brief for Combine24, I began exploring the available art collection, seeking something that would spark an idea. I bookmarked and saved artworks that visually interested me, considering the potential of combining pieces from different artists or genres. After sifting through pages of the archive, I found the artwork that stood out from everything else I had seen: "Seven Women" by Fernand Desmoulin.
This piece resonated deeply with the themes in my own art—paper textures, dark elements, dream-like states, and a visually unsettling atmosphere. The awkward scene depicted in "Seven Women" intrigued me, prompting questions about the identities of these women and the artist himself.
Upon researching Fernand Desmoulin, I discovered that much of his work is mediumistic art, created by channeling otherworldly influences. This concept aligned perfectly with my interest in dark art and the idea of art created through unconventional means. Instead of mediumistic-generated art, I envisioned using code to generate art, blending traditional themes with modern technology.
Although I hoped to find more works by Desmoulin in the archive to combine, "Seven Women" (and a variant) were the only pieces available. Undeterred, I decided to pursue this idea, as it resonated strongly with my artistic style and the concept of using code as a mediumistic influence.
The idea is to generate infinite compositions featuring varied numbers of different women, with each iteration appearing at the click of a button. The code acts as the mediumistic influence, creating unique variations each time.
To achieve this, I first needed full-body assets for each woman in the original artwork, as many were partially hidden. I used Generative Fill in Photoshop to create these new assets and edit them to fit seamlessly into the composition, along with generating a complete background. The remaining graphical elements were separated to work as layers or masks in the final piece.