Generative artist Emily Xi partners with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) to launch its latest collection, Interwoven. Best known for her generative collection Memories of Qilin, Xie once again uses the power of code to create mesmerizing pieces.
This collaboration between the remarkable artist and the museum has a unique impact as LACMA has quickly become a digital art hotspot. The museum started a digital art acquisition fund in 2022 and has since expanded its collection with NFTs donated by Cozomo de’ Medici. As part of the blockchain initiative “Remembrance of Things Future” in collaboration with Cactoid LabsLACMA partners with esteemed digital artists to create works of art that reimagine objects and pieces from the museum’s permanent collections.
Interwoven is an on-chain digital series creatively influenced by the quilts and textiles of LACMA’s repertoire. Fascinated by the visual patchwork and the harmonious combination of different patterns, Xie embarked on a quest to explore the potential of quilts in the realm of her generative art style.
The first inspiration
“I was specifically interested in quilts and fabrics; they tend to inspire me because they are so deeply multisensory,” Xie now told nft. “There’s an element of visual patchwork and I love how different patterns can come together and create something that looks so unified.
During Xie’s exploration, a particular quilt caught her eye: the 1896 Bullseye Quilt, made by Martha Lou Jones. Xie shared her admiration, saying, “What I love about it is how it represented what generative art meant to me. There is the tension between the human and the computational.”
The quilt’s grid of circles, while ostensibly accurate, shows inconsistencies upon closer inspection.
“You can see it’s a grid of repeated circles, and it can look very mathematical,” Xie said. “But if you look closely, you can see that it is very imperfect.”
This delicate balance between organic and rigid geometry fascinated Xie and became a driving force behind Interwoven.
From lines of code to visual poetry
The Interwoven collection was released on June 7 as a limited edition of 100 pieces, each minted on the Ethereum blockchain for those on the admission list. The collection features patchwork designs incorporating various geometric patterns, both new and previously used elements. Reminiscent of quilting traditions, these patterns weave together to form intricate compositions.
“I’m fascinated by how each pattern of a quilt tells its own story,” noted Xie.
Xie used JavaScript as a programming language and used generative algorithms to create the series. The result is a collection that is completely random when hit. Although Xie had a blueprint in mind, she had no precise knowledge of the final results. This element of unpredictability adds an exciting and dynamic aspect to the art.
Xie notes, “People often ask, ‘Where do you get these patterns? Where did you get these textures?’ What they don’t realize is that those patterns are completely generative. They are dynamically created on-the-fly by the code.”
By emphasizing the interplay between human creativity and computer processes, Interwoven shows the limitless possibilities that arise when art and technology come together. The drop has been met with positive reception and is currently reaching a 4 ETH floor value at the time of writing.
Xie says it has been a pleasure to work with LACMA, the culmination of a long-awaited collaboration that started when they first made contact in 2018.
With Interwoven, Xie explores the narrative power of quilts and celebrates the individual stories woven into each pattern. Combining quilting traditions and generative art, this digital series captivates viewers with its visually stunning compositions and invites them to appreciate the beauty of both tradition and innovation.