With “Endless Monologue,” Licia He reflects on questions that she subconsciously asks herself like, “Who am I?” and “Is this correct?” In thinking about these repetitive and constant questions, she writes, “They are soft murmurs yet enormously demanding. They are intricate but chaotic. Gloomy or bright, they are all colorful, tangled, and bizarre.” A selection of 31 phrases from her internal monologues are the seeds for the random number generator that defines each artwork in the series. The visual manifestation is a dense surface of flowing curves that intersect and create networks.
Because Licia is using paint and brushes to translate her images from code to paper, the difference between what’s seen on screen and on paper is significant. For example, on screen a series of dense lines fill the image, but these lines merge into solid blocks as the paint spreads through the paper. The relationship to both representations (screen and on paper) is a significant element of Licia’s images.
“Endless Monologue” is a software NFT, but the first collector of each edition will receive the corresponding plotter drawing shipped directly from the artist’s studio. Each software NFT includes millions of other images beyond the primary image for each edition. The software NFT and the plotter drawing aren’t linked together; the NFT can continue to be collected on a secondary market without the drawing. Press the enter/return key or click the center of the image to hide and display the interface instructions to generate new images.
The image you see on the main artwork page on Feral File is the plotter drawing for the artist-proof (AP). Compare this image of the drawing to the corresponding software version of the AP to see how the software image and the plotted drawing are related. Because the artists are using a range of papers and inks, the software and physical drawings are delightfully different.
The “Endless Monologue” paintings are 40.6 x 30.5 cm (16 x 12 inches) on Arches Watercolor 300 gsm paper. They are painted with customized extra-fine watercolor brushes with assorted ink, watercolor, and liquid pigments by manufacturers such as Diamine, Rohrer & Klingner, Organic Studio, and Akua.