Tezos

13B // A Floral Attempt at Recreating a Photomontage by Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore

Creator

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Description

A Floral Attempt at Recreating a Photomontage by Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, from "Aveux non Avenus" (Disavowed Confessions) "The Machine Recalls a Canon" 1833 x 2500 px, .png 2022 // For this little exercise in post-photography, I attempt to recreate iconic photographs using new artificial intelligence algorithms that generate images from text prompts, made possible thanks to advances in natural language processing models like GPT-3. This photograph was mediated through Midjourney's AI Bot on Discord and is entirely machine generated. This series is dedicated to Pierre Menard, Author of Don Quixote. In recreating the canon from digital scratch, we can consider the fragility of our collective memories, we can also reconsider the canon in and of itself. What deserves to be called forth back into existence and why? In my opinion, Claude Cahun's most iconic image is their 1927 Self-Portrait (As a Weight Trainer), where they sit all coy in makeup and slick bangs holding a barbell. A text on Cahun's faux-nude top with nipple pads reads "I am in Training. Don't kiss me 👄." Claude drew out the lips with post-internet emoji flair. Although Cahun was part of the surrealist movement, they didn't get their proper due until the latter part of the 20th century, decades after their death, as their gender-noncomforming self-portraits drew the attention of a new generation queer artists and scholars. Claude Cahun collaborated with their life-long romantic partner Marcel Moore (they were step-sisters when they met), who captured many of Cahun's portrait and created photo collages for Cahun's 1930 book "Aveux non Avenus" (Disavowed Confessions). Many of these collaborative collages interrogated gender and identity with a chaotic richness that vibes hard with today's post-internet visuals. Much like Adrian Pipers image in this series, Cahun and Moore's photomontage are nearly impossible to recreate with an AI. At best, I tried to approximate some of the visual themes and motifs. During WW2, both Cahun and Moore were active in the French Resistance. They designed anti-n4z1 propaganda and went undercover to distribute them. Both were captured by the Germans, who destroyed much of their works and sentenced them to death in 1944. The war ended just before their execution date and they were freed. Cahun lived on until their death in 1954. For Reference, RISD's original edition of "Aveux Non Avenus" with images:: https://risdmuseum.org/art-design/collection/disavowed-confessions-aveux-non-avenus-200557 May these links survive the tests of time <3 // // Artwork by Sabato Visconti // www.sabatobox.com // @sabatobox on Twitter //