Mads Christensen Bloom Unfolded, 2024
LEDs, Acrylic, Custom Software
78 x 160 x 80 in.
Presented by Timothy Yarger Fine Art / Yarger Projects, Booth B11
Continuing the exploration of materials uncommonly used in fine art, initiated by the first generation of the light and space artists, Mads’ use of light as medium is distinguished among the pantheon of contemporary artists in this canon. While many modern tools of technology have allowed artists to bombard the viewer with more and more stimuli, Mads Christensen has chosen a path, in his artistic practice, to constrain the amount of information and present a viewing experience of quiet contemplation and enveloping serenity, with compelling visual and emotional pleasure.
Mads’ use of light as medium stimulates unexpected subtle effects on perception and an ever changing experience for the viewer. The artist’s hand written custom coding, and intentionally created flow of image, color, shape and intensity, create unique elements as controlled randomness and therefore are never repeating. The light sculpture are kinetic with an emotive shifting of these elements which are almost imperceptible. Mads’ work is included in many important private collections including the Thoma Foundation, the Hearst Corporation, the collections of board members of the Cincinnati Art Museum, Fine Art Museums of Houston and the Aspen Art Museum. Mads ’sculpture has been presented in numerous public art installations in California, St Louis, England, Israel and Germany and has received the DARC Award for the best public light sculpture in Europe.
“Bloom Unfolded ” is the next stage in my generative nature series that started with “Campfire” and continues with the “Bloom” series. In “Bloom Unfolded” I am using AI diffusion models to generate images of flowers in bloom. The process is driven by “seeding” the AI model with a starting image – in this case carefully crafted graphic patterns that serve as a rough sketch of the desired composition. The AI model then generates an image of flowers, based on the sketch and the millions of images of flowers it has been trained on. This process is repeated several times per second, each time with a slightly different seed image. The outcome is a constantly growing, ever-evolving display of bloom, one type of flower turns into another, one flower turns into several, and so on. The cycle repeats, like seasons, familiar but never quite the same. It is a completely artificial, yet completely natural-looking spectacle of evolution. The images are presented in near black-and-white, with occasional hints of color, to emphasize that the images are sketches, prepared by man and machine, but that soon, perhaps already, the machines may surpass human imagination and ability.