• AI Self-Portrait
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Melissa Wiederrecht

AI Self-Portrait, 2024

C-Type gloss print and ERC-721 token of digital collage created with AI

76 x 60 cm

$6,600.00
$6,600.00

“I love dichotomy: the coexistence of contrasting elements.  In this piece, the subject is myself.  A mix of noble purity and messy humanity, of high-tech intellectual work and sentimental romanticism, of the traditional and the modern. The scene is imagined, an idealization of how I perceive myself and my environment — an exploration of AI’s capacity to represent not my physical appearance but my essence.

I crafted the base of the image over several days of iteration with text-prompted generative AI, tweaking and refining until the objects took shape as desired. I then took the image to Photoshop, blurred out some areas, and overlaid it with a coded generative image I had made previously. I aimed to make the piece clearly my style — despite being quite different in medium and process than my normal work.

When I was satisfied, and felt like the image was “me”, one of my kids saw it over my shoulder and asked “Where were you, when this picture was taken, Mama?”, and “Is that me in the background?”. Another one of my kids knowingly answered, “It’s Mama a long time ago.” I asked, “what clues made you know this is me?”, and they said, “well, your mug, your art on the computer, the gold bracelets, the henna, the headscarf that I am sure I have seen before... and your cheek. That’s me behind you, right?” I honestly didn’t know how to answer. Is it him? Is the woman me? Both yes and no, I suppose, at the same time.” 

 — Melissa Wiederrecht
About Melissa Wiederrecht

Melissa Wiederrecht uses code as medium to survey various paradoxes: order and chaos, intention and accident, light and darkness, and control and randomness. Inspired by pioneers in the field of generative art, alongside Western and Islamic art history, Wiederrecht harnesses modern technology and tools like Javascript and GLSL fragment shaders, and the blockchain, to create artworks that explore ancient themes and cultural concepts.

Born in Iowa, Wiederrecht studied Computer Science and Mathematics at the University of Wyoming, and is based in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

The artist has released digital artworks on the blockchain since 2022, including: Sudfah, Art Blocks Curated (2022); Cosmic Rays, Verse (2023); Undercurrents, Bright Moments (2023); Take Wing, fxhash (2022); and Zbageti, fxhash (2022). Wiederrecht’s work has been shown worldwide, including: N=12, Feral File (2023); Tandem, Galerie Data, Paris (2023); Generative, FakeWhale Cross (2023); Liminal Space, Unit London, London (2023); Odysseys, Verse (2023); FEMGEN, Right Click Save x Vertical Crypto Art (2022); In Touch, VerticalCrypto Art, Berlin (2022); Arithmetic Phenomena, Verse (2022); and Coded Elegance, 1stDibs (2022). Her work is held in private and institutional collections such as Le Random, 6529 Museum of Art, Curated.xyz, and Unicorn DAO.
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Details

Contract address:
Token Standard: ERC-721
Blockchain: Ethereum
Metadata: Frozen and decentralized
COA: Verisart Certified

AI Self-Portrait