creative influences: W/S 2024
An ECLECTIC collection of things and favourites that have shaped the first half of 2024.
Vacation - Roope Rainisto
At first glance, if you look at these images, you may assume that these are just regular pieces of photography. Indeed, these sun-bathed, bright and vibrant utopias reflective of 1950-60s America seem like a perfect EMBODIMENT of the dream-like qualities and nostalgia of summer days. However, these pieces made by the Finnish artist Roope Rainisto are not “real” images per se; they are a product of Artificial intelligence systems, and the more you look at them closely, the more aware you become of this.
I had the PRIVILEGE of viewing this artwork earlier this May during an EXHIBITION presented by Verse Works in collaboration with Digital Art Week on Cork Street. The exhibition came alongside a panel which looked into the past, present and future of AI-generated art. As a creative, I find the future of AI within our industries a fascinating subject. With current events such as the writer’s guild strike, the launch of Sora and even the publishing of Copy Magazine (the world’s first AI magazine), it’s clear that AI has definitely created a lot of commotion already. Indeed, it seems that such technology is being met with both enthusiasm and scepticism, with many questioning the legitimacy and authenticity of AI-generated artwork. Something which I argue, has and is forcing us to question our understanding of artwork as a whole. Before this exhibition, I would definitely have classified myself among the rank of sceptics, doubting the possibility of Ai creating artwork I could possibly be impressed by or even relate to. The vacation series was the first art collection to change my mind about this. And though it is important to note that more than anything, vacation is still the production of a human artist and technology collaboration, I believe is it a great step towards a new era of art in the modern world.
Visually, I find this work mesmerising. The vintage nostalgia, classic cars and sunny landscapes remind me vividly of the work of Slim Aarons or jeff wall. Furthermore, there is a certain sense of narrative and storytelling within these images, something that draws you into them even closer than you thought would be possible. However, What I love most about this collection is the deliberate showing of the “glitches'“ or “hallucinations” made by the Ai artwork. Unlike the current tendency to achieve photorealistic images in AI, rainisto’s work is explicit in harnessing the imperfections of AI TECHNOLOGY in the work he presents. The result: additional limbs, missing body parts, and duplicates, all of which add a certain sense of discomfort and abstraction to the people who look at these images. Pieces such as Vacation Smoke #4 almost look surrealist in how they distort and break up the face, giving them an almost paint-like quality.
So far, Vacation may be one of the most unconventional yet important creative influences of the year so far and i would encourage everyone to look deeper in the collection as there truly are so many incredible pieces showcased. View the whole collection here.
Les parapluies de Cherbourg (1964) - JAcques Demy
It is without a doubt that film school has turned me into one of those pretentious film students who absolutely "Love the French new wave.” Even though I’ve already gushed over the works of Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Varda, Alain Resnais and François Truffaut; there was always one director I never got around to watching, and this was Jacques Demy. I heard much of his work before this, notably his film Lola (1961) which is a direct reference to my favourite director Max ophüls and his film Lola Montès (1955) and obviously the success of this film within the festival circuit, with the film the Palme d’or in Cannes in 1964. For some reason, I was somewhat surprised that Netflix France had a small collection of his works available to watch as films from that time are sadly not as distributed as I would like to see them. Yet there I was, a random Thursday night, cooking dinner with a glass of Riesling with this film on in the background.
You know a film is good when you have to stop what you’re doing as you’re so drawn into the screen, and this was the case for this film. No matter how hard I tried to focus on what I was doing, I was so drawn to the images on the screen that I had to stop what I was doing and focus on this movie alone. In short, this film is a colourful cinematic masterpiece. With many of the new wave directors making their films, it was so captivating to see Demy use colours so boldly to create the world of Cherbourg. Every element, from staging to clothing is an explosion of colour which never seems to be in excess yet perfectly shapes the story we see before us. The cast of this film is also exceptional in every sense of the term. Catherine Deneuve embodies the naivety and youthfulness of Geneviève’s character perfectly, so much so that it's so hard to see her in her other characters after. Now don’t get me wrong, there are some things I don’t like about this film; most importantly the lack of spoken dialogue and the fact that every word in this film is sung. For many, this is what makes Les Parapluies de Cherbourg the masterpiece it is, and though I might agree, I would be lying if I said that it didn’t irritate me at times. But overall, as someone who puts visuals as one of the biggest determining factors on whether I like a film or not, Les Parapluies is definitely not a film I’m ready to forget about anytime soon.
As a French person who sadly never spent much time watching French classics growing up, it was really poignant to start seeing places I’m so familiar with in a cinematic setting. And even if now global and international cinema is slowly starting to have more influence on our viewing habits, I would be lying if I said that the majority of my life had been dominated by watching Hollywood films. French cinema may not be everyone’s initial go-to for films, but it's truly films like these that make me want to argue the case that they should be.
Common language magazine
One of my favourite weekend rituals is walking down Portobello on the market day and going into one of the newsagents to go and get a magazine. Luckily for me, London newsagents tend to have incredible collections of art and fashion magazines, spanning from mainstream to super niche. Common Language was tucked in the back of one of the shelves but I was immediately drawn to its unconventional format and sizing. Ironically, I had no idea that this magazine was written in both French and English, so it was an amazing surprise to be able to read both and bring this additional dimension of understanding to the texts. Aside from this feature, both the art direction and design are just incredible: the way the text is always slightly cut off from the page, the layering of fonts, the vintage feel and the textured pages make Common Language unique in how it plays so effortlessness with simplicity and complexity.
Common Language is a bi-annual publication based in Paris. On their website, they describe themselves as the following:
"There is a misunderstanding that opposes the individual and the collective. It is undoubtedly nourished by the contradictions of our time, when geographical borders are increasingly up for debate as they vanish through digital technology. A subjective reality where authenticity dresses itself up with a wide range of filters. Yet the collective remains a sum of individualities. It is the diversity of the latter that tends to make them thought of as entities with incompatible values. But if a community is made up of different personalities, what brings them together?
Common Language. A shared language. One used by bodies to tell a story, one that is always singular and unique. The language of art, which connects the most distant cultures, thrills the emotions and starts dialogue that goes beyond stereotypes. It is out of a desire to share this universal language that this magazine was born."
I think that nowadays in an age where everything is becoming increasingly digital, it's important to question the relevance and importance of keeping print magazines within the publishing circuit. It's also important to see what printed magazines are doing in relation to this digitisation and I believe that it's magazines such as Common Language are the ones who have done it right as they've truly understood the experience of flipping through the pages of a magazine and crafted an incredible experience for any reader who picks up one of their issues.
Instagram: @commonlanguagemag
Other influences
Photographers:
Louis Sheridan. Beau Simmons. Avery Swail. Ward X Kweshin. Kurt Arrigo. Natalie Obradovich. Bryce Anderson. Walter Loos Jr.
Books:
The creative act: A way of Being (Rick Rubin). The artist in the Machine (Arthur I. Miller). L’ordre du discours (Michel Foucault). The Age of Ai (Henry Kissinger, Eric Schmidt, David Huttenlocher). Hiroshima mon Amour (Marguerite Duras).
Films:
Les demoiselles de rochefort (1967). Carrie (1976). The graduate (1967). Saltburn (2023). Athena (2022).
PLACES:
cadaquès. Shreeji News. Carcassone. reference point. l’abbaye fontfroide. antibes. Park Güell. Green spot Diagonal. Honest greens.
Music: