“Leaves of Manifold, of Red and Gold” by Helena Sarin is a piece that focuses on autumn tree leaves, the rich combinations of their color hues, and their seasonal omnipresence. Leaves appear and disappear one by one, presenting a fashion parade to the viewer, the detailed veins and complex color transitions providing a feast for the visual senses. At times the shapes seem to belong to unfamiliar trees, or the leaf stalk may be separated. As is typical in Helena Sarin’s practice, these images have been generated by a GAN trained on the artist’s own photographs and sketches. Then, Sarin reviews the generated images and manually curates the final selection, acting by the principle “It’s not the frames you play, it’s the frames you don’t play,” to paraphrase Miles Davis.
