Yugen is the title of a moving-image artwork by Martha Fiennes, film director, writer and artist. In this groundbreaking work, Fiennes explores the boundaries of a radical new medium to create a visual and meditative exploration into perceptions of reality. Here AI and creativity come together opening a new portal into the realm of creative possibilities.
In a pioneering union between actor and director in an artwork, the actor Salma Hayek Pinault is Fiennes’ muse and it is her character who dominates the screen as a leading visual presence.
With her production team headed by Peter Muggleston, Fiennes brings to her art substantial experience of filmmaking and visual effects technology to create dynamic works which are able to perpetually self-generate in a continuous, effectively infinite, non-predictable ‘random’ cycle. This means that each viewing enables a unique, non-linear, spontaneous experience which is liberated from any need to ‘loop’ or repeat.
The combined media process utilises generative computer coding technologies to enable a continuous, self-selective visual display. Fiennes’ SLOimage™ works sit in an evolving space between film, art, audio and technology. Nativity (2011), the debut work in this genre, has had showcases at the V&A, the National Gallery, Sotheby’s London and Paris, the Venice Biennale 2018 and the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg in December 2018.
The Yugen experience is akin to the world of the subconscious; to dreaming, hallucinations or an out-of-body experience. With a hypnotic sound score written by the composer Magnus Fiennes, we are led on an on-going, dreamlike often surreal journey suggesting an encounter with both the ‘consensus’ world as well as with that of alternate dimensional realities. Through both technique and subject matter, Fiennes creates a dramatic and unusual evocation to stimulate the depths of the subconscious mind.
The project has been produced by Tendercapital via its subsidiary arts incubator Tender-to-Art (www.tendercapital.com).
Moreno Zani, CEO of Tendercapital was immediately drawn to Fiennes’ visionary work when he encountered Nativity after it was exhibited at the Venice Biennale, 2017.
Yugen was first premiered at the Venice Film Festival, hosted by Tendercapital, on September 1st 2018. It exhibited subsequently at the Palazzo Grassi Museum, Venice.
Yugen was subsequently showcased at The Serpentine Gallery during London Frieze week in October 2018.
Yugen is the first work to be registered as an Art Record, the new standard for Art Object identification on the Internet. Digital Twin serve as an excellent tool to provide evidence of provenance, establish artwork chain of ownership and provide meaningful and valuable art work information in a variety of formats. Digital Twin is based on the standard developed by J. Paul Getty Trust and adopted by UNESCO, ICOM and major law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, Scotland Yard, Interpol.