11 October: 11:00 – 18:00
https://fineartasia.com/fine-art-asia-2021/Ben Brown Fine Arts will present works from the Carters' celebrated Transforming and Dark Factory Portrait series, and will feature the opportunity for collectors to commission robot-generated portraits.
The Carters' Transforming series (2008-2018) consists of looped films displayed in ornate frames depicting an iconic painting, drawing or photograph that is subtly brought to life and ingeniously transformed through digital animation. The Carters' aim is to re-engage with these historical artworks and create a unique intersection between art of the past and cutting edge, computer-generated imagery. The Transforming series was originally informed by the knowledge that museum visitors look at a work for an average of three seconds. In an attempt to inspire visitors to examine artworks for longer, it became the Carters' ambition to create a body of work that rewarded viewers for the extra time spent looking.
In the Dark Factory Portraits series, first exhibited at Ben Brown Fine Arts London in 2020, the Carters pose the question of whether a machine can become a painter. And more than that, could it convey not just form, but that most intangible of human qualities: personality. Working with a team of software programmers and visual effects specialists, they set out to explore how far and fast algorithms and moving parts could progress towards a new creative paradigm. Central to this conversation was the artists' desire to use technology to execute their own ideas, and paint in a style of their choice. Over months of iterations, they worked with the programmers to layer the code so that the robot could paint both loosely and to a very high level of detail where necessary, executing the portraits to a consistent style envisioned by the artists. The presentation will include portraits of celebrated artists, as well as the opportunity to commission robot-generated portraits.
