FROM 'ALTERNATIVES TO 'LYRICAL CONVERGENCE' BY ESPEN KLUGE
Lyrical Convergence comprises 100 new generative artworks, seeded with the same dataset from Kluge’s former Alternatives series, exhibited in both physical and digital form for the first time during the group show at Kate Vass Galerie, opening on 27th October 2022 in Zurich.
Espen Kluge is a true polymath: a composer, a visual artist, and a creative coder. He is fascinated by spontaneity and the exploration of semi-randomness in moments of improvisation.
This unique approach is reflected in his two series, which are closely related: Alternatives (2019) and Lyrical Convergence (2022). Both use the same set of data but two different algorithms. The artworks showcase the diversity of human perception, objectivity, and subjectivity, where we see the transformation from former Alternatives ‘figurative’ to abstractionism of ‘Lyrical Convergence’.
ALTERNATIVES, 2019
took a left, a left then a left again, 2019 by Espen Kluge
The alternatives series were exhibited for the first time in 2019 at the physical premises of Kate Vass Galerie. It marked a historical moment, where NFTs were shown as an artwork along with fine art prints as a solo show curated by Jason Bailey, aka Artnome. 100 unique portraits generated by JavaScript based on data collected from photographs taken in real by Espen since 2013 were on display as digital and physical art. Kluge’s portraits are monumental and structural, reminding us of the sculpture of Russian constructivists like Naum Gabo and Vladimir Tatlin. But in contrast to the sombre colours of the constructivist movement, Kluge’s works play with vibrant colours, where he questions the object and its characteristics, where vector-based lines serve a particular dynamic to describe the persona. His code takes photographs as input, loops through all the pixels in a raster image, chooses some at semi-random, and then engages those pixels by putting lines between them. Espen believes that the quality of each of his portraits comes from the fact that he writes by hand a new version of his algorithm for every portrait in pure Javascript.
Click below to browse the complete catalogue and the official website: https://alternatives.art
LYRICAL CONVERGENCE, 2022
Ravissement, oil on canvai, 1961 by Georges Mathieu
As a continuation of his experiments with the same data over the last 3 years, Espen developed a new algorithm that created a new set of works, the Lyrical Convergence.
With new growth algorithm Espen attempting to visualize the inner kismet of the Alternatives portraits. In contrast to the original series's geometric structure, the new sequence's result presents an organic-looking abstract form expressing intangible sensations.
The monochromic background, the centralized shape, the united lines, and the neat, calm colour palette are reminiscent of the art of Georges Matthieu, one of the fathers of lyrical abstraction.
The converging lines, which recall the cardiogram emphasis on colours, seem to interrogate the unconscious. Like a living creature on X axis, the linear progression dictates the dark landscape with its unique pace.
Lyrical Convergence #70, 2022 by Espen Kluge
The artist adapts the immediate and direct approach to the new algorithm that brings into question the subject's position with respect to the object. Espen exalts it with the projection of his code with the coherent intensity to which the algorithmic execution of fragmentary castellations of lines, fields and colour imparted a maximum objectification. He makes it a place almost independent of the artist's existence, the code, and the manifestation of art itself. His series Lyrical Convergence is insemination in which subjective and objective, rather than being considered antonymous, hold a dialogue and form integration.
Like the European abstractionists, Espen’s works express something personal, vibrant, and entirely imaginative, in other words - lyrical.
Lyrical Convergence comprises 100 generative works, seeded with the same dataset from his former Alternatives series, exhibited in both physical and digital form.