Press release: Arca, Untitled
CULT ARTIST ARCA WHO HAS WORKED WITH BJÖRK AND KANYE WEST COMMISSIONED FOR NEW YEAR ON PICCADILLY LIGHTS
Press Release
CIRCA, Piccadilly Circus, W1
The ground-breaking experimental artist, Arca invites audiences to enter into a sci-fi playground for Untitled, CIRCA’s new commission which will premiere on Piccadilly Lights in London and on a global network of screens in Los Angeles, Milan, Melbourne, New York, Seoul and Tokyo on New Year’s Day and throughout January 2022 daily at 20:22.
Blurring the line between art and technology, Arca trained an algorithm with 31 images of her mixed media paintings, allowing these material real-world artworks to transcend the physical realm to debut her emergence as a visual artist on the global stage.
Arca said: “I hope you are compelled by these interpolated paintings of mine to take a moment and let the visual ASMR produce pleasure, allow for a moment of respite and solace, the experience of warped beauty.”
Alejandra Ghersi Rodríguez, known professionally as Arca, is one of the most prolific and visionary artists of her generation. She has released eight studio albums, including Arca (2017), and the Kick quintet, starting with Kick (2020). She has contributed production work to artists such as Björk, Kanye West, FKA twigs and Kelela. Arca’s fluency in different media is defined by the limitless growth of her practice from a musician, producer and performer to a truly multi-disciplinary artist.
Her commission launches the CIRCA 2022 programme:
‘AND NOW WE BUILD WORLDS’
Comprising twelve revolutionary acts of imagination, CIRCA 2022 draws inspiration from the fiction of Ursula K. Le Guin, Octavia Butler and the theory of bells hooks, and a new history of humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow to imagine new realities that remind us all of our collective potential to remake the world we inhabit.
Josef O’Connor, Artistic Director, CIRCA, comments: “Arca’s constant forward momentum has resulted in some of the decade’s most progressive and culturally significant work. A true polymath, I am moved by her courage and honoured to present this collaboration fusing art with technology to generate new possibilities and launch the beginning of CIRCA 2022 – a year of world-building.”
This January, Arca has created five prints in support of the #CIRCAECONOMY:
- Untitled | Hand-signed limited edition of 22 silkscreen print | £1,000
- Untitled | Four time-limited, hand-signed edition prints. Available until midnight 31st January 2022, A4 | £122
Available to purchase exclusively on the CIRCA.ART website, proceeds from both sales will support the #CIRCAECONOMY – a circular model that funds our free public art programme and creates life-changing opportunities for the art & culture community. This January, a partnership between CIRCA and Goldsmiths University will be announced, providing two scholarships worth £15,000 each for UK students to study on their MA Curatorial and MAArt and Ecology courses.
-ENDS-
| SCHEDULE: CIRCA PRESENTS ‘UNTITLED’ BY ARCA 1-31 JANUARY | ||
| TIME | CITY | SCREEN LOCATION SOCIAL/TAG MAP/LINK |
| 20:22 GMT | LONDON | PICCADILLY LIGHTS @piccadillylights
|
| 20:22 PST | LOS ANGELES | |
| 20:22 ACT | MELBOURNE | |
| 20:22 UTC | MILAN | |
| 20:22 EST | NEW YORK | |
| 20:22 KST | SEOUL | |
| 21:30 JST | TOKYO | |
| 20:22 GMT | BROADCAST DAILY ON THE CIRCA.ART WEBSITE @circa.art CLICK HERE | |
Click to download images and assets
For press enquiries please contact:
Reece Prince Watson
E: reece@circa.art
T: + 00 44 7899 043357
Notes To Editors
CIRCA
CIRCA is a digital art and culture platform with purpose. We stop the clock on global media spaces every evening at 20:22 and mobilise the world’s greatest creative minds to broadcast unique works that consider our world today, circa 2022. The funds we generate from artist print sales drive the #CIRCAECONOMY – a circular model that supports our free public art programme and creates life-changing opportunities for the art & culture community.
Since launching in October 2020 on London’s iconic Piccadilly Lights, CIRCA has commissioned new work from rising and established artists including Ai Weiwei, Cauleen Smith, Eddie Peake, Anne Imhof, Patti Smith, Tony Cokes, Emma Talbot, Vivienne Westwood, James Barnor, David Hockney, and more.
SUPPORTERS
CIRCA has been made possible by Landsec, landlord of Piccadilly Lights, who have kindly donated media space, as a helpful boost to the cultural scene in London’s West End.
We are grateful to Piccadilly Lights, Ocean Outdoor, Yunika Vision, CJ Powercast, Luxottica, Fed Square, Pendry West Hollywood for their support this month in supporting our free public art programme.
STYLEGAN
StyleGAN is a generative adversarial network (GAN) – a machine learning technology used to generate people, objects, and landscapes that have never existed. The A.I. generated images are formed using algorithmic
architectures that use two neural networks, pitting one against the other to generate new, synthetic instances of data that can pass for real data.
For the creation of Untitled, Arca collaborated with the CIRCA X Dazed Class of 2021 finalist, Christina Anagnostou who trained an algorithm with 31 images of Arca’s mixed media paintings.
Credits
Creative Directed by Arca
Paintings by Arca
Gan Training by Christina Anagnostou