LYRICAL CONVERGENCE

FROM 'ALTERNATIVES TO 'LYRICAL CONVERGENCE'

The following are the words of Kate Vass who started working with Espen representing him for his series Alternatives and now this new series Lyrical Convergence.

The series has its own website lyricalconvergence.art.

Lyrical Convergence comprises 100 new generative artworks, seeded with the same dataset from Kluge’s former Alternatives series, exhibited in both physical and digital form for the first time during group show at Kate Vass Galerie in Zurich.

As a composer, a visual artist, and a creative coder Espen is fascinated by spontaneity and the exploration of semi-randomness in moments of improvisation. This unique approach is reflected in his two series, which are closely related: His generative portrait series Alternatives and this series, Lyrical Convergence. Both use the same set of data but two different algorithms. The artworks showcase the diversity of human perception, objectivity, and subjectivity, where we see the transformation from former Alternatives ‘figurative’ to abstractionism of ‘Lyrical Convergence’.

spiritually enlightened, better than most people

singing weirdly, probably beautiful to some

giving normal people abnormal experiences

superclear when I say it's risky business

hear about his scandal over and over again

good at impressions, bad at non impressions

if that's true, he should have figured it out

it's finally satisfying and it makes sense

The alternatives series were exhibited for the first time in 2019 at the physical premises of Kate Vass Galerie. It marked a historical moment, where NFTs were shown as an artwork along with fine art prints as a solo show curated by Jason Bailey, aka Artnome.

100 unique portraits generated by JavaScript based on data collected from photographs sourced online by Espen since 2013 were on display as digital and physical art. Kluge’s portraits are monumental and structural, reminding us of the sculpture of Russian constructivists like Naum Gabo and Vladimir Tatlin. But in contrast to the sombre colours of the constructivist movement, Kluge’s works play with vibrant colours, where he questions the object and its characteristics, where vector-based lines serve a particular dynamic to describe the persona. His code takes photographs as input, loops through all the pixels in a raster image, chooses some at semi-random, and then engages those pixels by putting lines between them. Espen believes that the quality of each of his portraits comes from the fact that he writes by hand a new version of his algorithm for every portrait in pure Javascript. Click for the official website: https://alternatives.art

As a continuation of his experiments with the same data over the last 3 years, Espen developed a new algorithm that created a new set of works, the Lyrical Convergence. With this new growth algorithm, Espen attempts to visualize the inner kismet of the Alternatives portraits. In contrast to the original series's geometric structure, the result of the new sequence presents an organic-looking abstract form expressing intangible sensations.

The monochromic background, the centralized shape, the united lines, and the neat, calm colour palette are reminiscent of the art of Georges Mathieu, one of the fathers of lyrical abstraction.

*Ravissement, oil on canvai, 1961 by Georges Mathieu*

The converging lines, which recall the cardiogram emphasis on colours, seem to interrogate the unconscious. Like a living creature on X axis, the linear progression dictates the dark landscape with its unique pace.

The artist adapts the immediate and direct approach to the new algorithm that brings into question the subject's position with respect to the object. Espen exalts it with the projection of his code with the coherent intensity to which the algorithmic execution of fragmentary castellations of lines, fields and colour imparted a maximum objectification. He makes it a place almost independent of the artist's existence, the code, and the manifestation of art itself. His series Lyrical Convergence is insemination in which subjective and objective, rather than being considered antonymous, hold a dialogue and form integration.

Like the European abstractionists, Espen’s works express something personal, vibrant, and entirely imaginative, in other words - lyrical.

All business enquiries regarding the series should be addressed to Kate Vass Galerie.