Point Cloud (turmoil)

Lemercier’s Point cloud series was featured in the New York Times as part of a story to illustrate the ethical challenges of using the very energy intensive Ethereum blockchain. Now that the structural flaws of inefficiency have been fixed (Ethereum moved from PoW to PoS) Lemercier is back to the Ethereum blockchain after a 2 year break.

Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/13/climate/nft-climate-change.html

Dimensions of the printed work: 300cm x 180cm, Print on Dibond (5mm or more).

While the physical print isn’t provided by the artist, this NFT allows the owner to print a physical version of the visual: The high resolution source file is provided, alongside with printing instructions, embedded in the metadata.

If the print is ever damaged, lost or stolen, it can be produced again by the owner.

In this series the artist is trying to convey the chaotic feelings one may experience in times of climate crisis, a sense of humility and sideration that strikes while contemplating the impacts of forces in nature, the amplification of winds, storms, floods, fires and extreme weather events induced by climate change. This particular aesthetic of the dark sublime is very much influenced by the epic engraving works of French painter Gustave Doré (1844-1883).

While the work can be seen as a metaphor for the climate crisis, it also suggests the overwhelming scale of the other challenges humanity is facing. Visual cues also suggests the weight of geopolitical instability and ongoing nuclear threats. The artist’s experience of the technological sublime in German coal mines grounded his realization of the hopelessness of techno optimism.

Capturing the ethereal sublime

For many years, Lemercier’s obsession in representing natural landscapes pushed him to create hundreds of iterations of mountains, valleys, volcanoes, dunes and oceans. Code, software and algorithms allowed him to explore the aesthetic of the sublime, particularly inspired by the German romantic painters from the 19th century, through lines, grids, patterns to represent the outlines and details of nature. Yet, one entire cluster of sublime objects resisted the artist’s explorations: Clouds and skies. Lemercier felt held down by current computers ability to model reality: the inner structure of clouds being one of the most challenging to recreate with software, many of his attempts to represent skies with digital tools fell flat. During his travels, the artist has photographed hundreds of real clouds in various locations and lighting conditions, documenting in an attempt to understand and capture the secrets of the sublime.

As photography couldn’t quite represent and reflect the artist’s intentions, it took him a decade to find his way through these clouds: le pointillisme.