COLLECTOR’S CHOICE - Excessize by Roope Rainisto
"Excessize", by Finnish AI artist Roope Rainisto, is a critical exploration of American consumerism and fast food culture. Created in 2022, the series serves as a precursor to his renowned “Life in West America”. By blending the visual style of vintage Americana photography with AI technology, Rainisto contrasts the once-idealized golden age of American fast food with its later-recognized negative consequences.
Frozen Fresh (from Excessize series), 2022 by Roope Rainisto
Roope Rainisto has worked as a designer, specializing in UX, for years while also pursuing photography as a hobby. He began working with AI in 2021 and has since been experimenting with the combination of photography and AI technology to create post-photographic artworks.
Portrait of Roope Rainisto
In 2023, he created his renowned “Life in West America” series, which introduced a new visual language that was unprecedented at the time. Influenced by early American vintage color photography, he used custom diffusion models to combine the aesthetics of the traditional medium with AI. The series focuses on individuals living in rural America, exploring their hopes, dreams, lives, and aspirations.
The Gathering (from Life in West America), 2023 by Roope Rainisto
The precursor to this series is “Excessize”, created in 2022 as both a study and an exploration. Compared to Life in West America, which takes on a more optimistic tone, Excessize presents a more critical perspective. Here, Roope Rainisto also employs the visual style of vintage Americana photography alongside AI to capture the post-war United States atmosphere—a time marked by a significant rise in food production following years of rationing.
Emergent Culture (from Excessize series), 2022 by Roope Rainisto
Fast food restaurants, which began to expand in the 1950s, catered to individuals across all socioeconomic levels, from presidents to the working class, promoting values of efficiency and uniformity. Many pop artists, such as Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, and Roy Lichtenstein, depicted fast food culture as a symbol of mass consumption and commercialism, often emphasizing its ubiquity and cultural significance.
French Fries and Ketchup, 1963 by Claes Oldenburg, Source: whitney.org
Rainisto’s Excessize captures both the celebration of post-war economic growth and a critique of its negative societal impacts. Through repetition and uniformity in the images, Rainisto highlights the consequences of global cultural homogenization, focusing on its role in eroding local traditions.
Service Culture (from Excessize series), 2022 by Roope Rainisto
This theme mirrors the ongoing expansion of AI, which moves towards automation, affecting authenticity and individuality. Just as the mass production of fast food promotes uniformity, the use of AI in the corporate sector prioritizes efficiency and scalability, potentially leading to similar homogenization in content and product creation.
