Cul-de-Sac

WILLARD

"How to Hold a Landscape" (2023)
5000 x 6250 pixels

How to Hold a Landscape

“The First Snow” (2022) borrows elements from my code-based generative works to create a landscape that comments both on the pictorial construction of images and the melancholy of everyday life. 

7200 x 9000 pixels

The First Snow

“The Worlds We Build” (2023) is the culmination of WILLARD’s body of work to date, featuring elements from “Southern Gothic,” “Ordinary Places,” and “Cul-de-Sac.” It also reveals the origin of WILLARD as a conceptual world-building project inspired by Sherwood Anderson’s 1919 short story cycle, “Winesburg, Ohio.” 

5000 x 6250 pixels


The Worlds We Build

"New Shadows on the Snow"  
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New Shadows on the Snow

"Four-Way Stop" (2023) incorporates elements from my code-based generative projects, "Southern Gothic" and "Ordinary Places." 

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Four-Way Stop

"The Trespassers" (2023)  
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The Trespassers

WILLARD (noun): Artist Observing the Ordinary.

This token is created exclusively for collectors holding the full set of my "Roadside Portraits" series. It can be burned to claim a forthcoming 1/1 on my WLLRD contract. These new 1/1s will be available to claim on a first-come basis.

Roadside Portraits - Full Set Token

WILLARD Editions

"The View from Above" (2023)  
7000 x 8750 pixels

The View from Above #74/100

The View from Above #93/100

WLLRD

“Landscape Continuum,” 2024. 
6000 x 6000 pixels

“Landscape Continuum” is the culmination of a year-long performance about landscape, abstraction, and collectivity. The performance began on July 3, 2023 with the release of “Theoretical Townships,” a generative project minted with ArtBlocks Engine. This collection of 196 generative works established the structure of the performance through code-based scripting. Collectors of “Theoretical Townships” were then invited to participate in the design of a collective landscape with several burn/claim mechanics. Through this interactive process, a new collection, entitled “Collective Landscape,” was created using the 196 “Theoretical Township” mints as building blocks. “Landscape Continuum” represents the conclusion of the project, piecing together the individual townships and hinterland fragments into a single continuous landscape. 


Landscape Continuum

SuperRare

“Southern Gothic” is my debut release on the fxhash platform. The project is created entirely through code. All copyrights are released to the holder of each image output, even for commercial purposes.

“Southern Gothic” borrows its name from the literary genre made famous by writers like Flannery O’Connor and Carson McCullers. Rather than illustrating a singular setting, the code generates an entire rural townscape, thereby, blurring the boundaries between representation and narrative. The individual scenes are framed frontally with an intentionally flat aesthetic character, referencing traditional folk art of the American South. The absence of human figures within these scenes adds to their overwhelming sense of darkness and forlorn. Observing multiple scenes side-by-side, one may even get the strange feeling that something terrible has happened (or is about to happen) in this rural landscape.

Pressing the down arrow saves the coded output as a .png image.


Southern Gothic #238

Southern Gothic #140

Southern Gothic

"The Enduring Chill" (2022)

Created with generative code.
2000 x 2000 pixels.

The Enduring Chill

"Tapestry" is a collection of 1/1 abstract compositions created with generative code. Their titles are taken from short stories by Flannery O'Connor.

"Judgement Day" (2022)

Created with generative code.
2000 x 2000 pixels.

Judegement Day

Tapestry

Following in the tradition established with “Southern Gothic,” this piece celebrates the conclusionary mint of a generative art collection. The address that burns this token will be allowed to mint the final piece (#300) from “Ordinary Places” on FxHash.

"Ordinary Places" Conclusion Mint Pass

Conclusion Mint Passes for FxHash Collections

The story of "Southern Gothic" began in an overgrown, empty field on a rainy afternoon (#1). How will it end? In a cemetery? At the church? With a pool of blood in front of a house and swing set? Or, back in the same overgrown, empty field where the story began? 

For many connoisseurs of generative art, the first mint of a collection has a symbolic value apart from its specific attributes and defining characteristics. Typically, this is less so the case for the final mint. However, for a work like “Southern Gothic,” which aims to blur the line between representation and narrative, the final mint is just as significant as the first. After all, a story is only as good as its ending.  

The opportunity to mint the conclusion (#300) to “Southern Gothic” on Fx(hash) will be granted to the wallet address that collects and then burns this token. All proceeds from the auction will be donated to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). 


"Southern Gothic" Conclusion Mint Pass

CONCLUSIONS

COLLECTIVE LANDSCAPE #21

COLLECTIVE LANDSCAPE #20

COLLECTIVE LANDSCAPE

Theoretical Townships explores the tension between flatness and depth within aerial representations of landscape. The title references a well-known diagram, created in 1785, illustrating the method for numbering sections of a standard township survey. Mirroring the structure of this diagram, each output from Theoretical Townships is subdivided into a grid of sections, ranging from one to thirty-six. In addition to incorporating landscape elements, such as pivot irrigators, roads, and buildings, the code also overlays large blocks of color, which create associations with two-dimensional quilting patterns. Through this representational conflation of flatness and depth, the project reveals an inherent conflict between landscape and the grid: the former being an irregular, topographic continuum, and the latter operating as an abstract, geometrical device for measurement and control. Embedded within the tension between landscape and the grid is a complex set of relations regarding the history and politics of territorial expansion.

Theoretical Townships #80

Theoretical Townships #177

Theoretical Townships by WILLARD

“Cul-de-Sacs” explores the banality of suburban sprawl through the anachronistic stylization of American folk art. The algorithm generates flattened representations of suburbia at range of scales, interspersed with the remnants of rural life.

#125

Cul-de-Sacs

Snowed In

The official WILLARD Transient Labs contract.

"Harvest Shadow," 2024.

A translation of "Theoretical Townships # 173"

Harvest Shadow

“Winesburg, Ohio” is an act of uncanny place-making. The collection borrows its name from a 1919 short-story cycle by Sherwood Anderson, which explores a peculiar cast of characters living within a fictionalized, midwestern town. Like Anderson’s text, the “Winesburg, Ohio” algorithm constructs a world through recurring portrayals of specific structures and landmarks. Its scenes are populated by a variety of familiar elements taken from my larger body of work, including water towers, houses, and churches. Meanwhile, a series of scripted gestures insert abstract compositional elements into the outputs, counteracting their pictorial legibility. The strange landscapes that result are composite ideograms, comprised of multiple spatial possibilities that co-exist in varying states of contradiction.

Winesburg, Ohio #12

Winesburg, Ohio #169

Winesburg, Ohio

An interpretation of the Decal by WILLARD. A symbol of permissionless creativity. Series Thirty Six.

Decal by WILLARD #49

Decal by WILLARD #91

Decal by WILLARD

"Tragedy in the Name of Progress," 2024.
6000 x 8000 pixels.

Tragedy in the Name of Progress

"The House Unbuilt," 2024.
6000 x 8000 pixels.

The House Unbuilt

Landscape Parables

“Landscape Parables,” is a collection of 10 new works exploring uncanny narratives through the reframing of ordinary life. Each piece presents an ensemble of familiar landscape elements, composed as a surrealist still-life to blur the line between reality and imagination.

“Landscape Continuum” is the culmination of a year-long performance about landscape, abstraction, and collectivity. The performance began on July 3, 2023 with the release of “Theoretical Townships,” a generative project minted with ArtBlocks Engine. This collection of 196 generative works established the structure of the performance through code-based scripting. Collectors of “Theoretical Townships” were then invited to participate in the design of a collective landscape with several burn/claim mechanics. Through this interactive process, a new collection, entitled “Collective Landscape,” was created using the 196 “Theoretical Township” mints as building blocks. “Landscape Continuum” represents the conclusion of the performance, piecing together the individual townships and hinterland fragments into a single continuous landscape. 

The Ruins

"Revival w/ Chopped Down Trees," 2024
Roadside Portraits Series

Revival w/ Chopped Down Trees

"Flagpole, But No Flag," 2024.
Roadside Portrait Series

Flagpole, But No Flag

"Shooting Star (But No One Saw It)," 2024
Roadside Portraits Series

Shooting Star (But No One Saw It)

Equation, Lemons, Trust

"Pink Sky, Empty Chair," 2024
Roadside Portraits Series

Pink Sky, Empty Chair

"Barn (No Animals)," 2024
Roadside Portraits Series

Barn (No Animals)

"No Water Yet," 2024
Roadside Portraits Series

No Water Yet

"Open Sky, Closed Station," 2024
Roadside Portraits Series

Open Sky, Closed Station

"Cul-de-Sacs" is the first curated long-form generative mint on Foundation. The project explores the banality of suburban sprawl through the anachronistic stylization of American folk art. Its algorithm generates flattened representations of suburbia at range of scales, interspersed with the remnants of rural life.

"Collective Landscape" is the culmination of a meta-generative project that developed over a period of several months, incorporating generative code, audience participation, historical commentary, and surrealist imaginations. The collection consists of 30 unique pieces that blur the boundary between abstract composition and pictorial representations of landscape. 

"Collective Landscape" will be released in the inaugural exhibition of Foundation's curatorial platform, Forever Projects. The exhibition, entitled "Between Heaven & Earth," also includes works by Nat Sarkissian, Blank Embrace, wren, nocellcoverage, and Elsif.

Collective Landscape

"How to Hold a Landscape" (2023)
SuperRare 1/1

WILLARD (ordinarywillard)

WILLARD (ordinarywillard)

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