Anna Lucia x Quilters of Gee’s Bend: A Fusion of Generative NFTs and Physical Quilts Spanning “Generations”

NEW YORK, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Arsnl Art announces its latest show, Generations, featuring a collaboration between generative artist Anna Lucia and the Quilters of Gee’s Bend. This unique collection honors the deep-rooted African American style of quiltmaking that emerged out of Gee’s Bend, Alabama. The show includes digital quilts based on physical threads as well as the physical quilts which informed the digital algorithms.

Pioneering generative artist Anna Lucia weaves traditional textile techniques with modern technology, creating a space where “logic and creativity collide.” She finds connections with female textile artists who have been overlooked throughout history. Her 2021 ArtBlocks project Loom drew inspiration from the female artists of the Bauhaus movement who were often relegated to weaving as other disciplines were deemed “inappropriate.”

With Generations, Anna Lucia uses computer algorithms to craft a series of digital quilts inspired by the iconic Gee’s Bend patchworks. Once a plantation, today virtually all of the 700 residents of Gee’s Bend, Alabama are descendants of the enslaved people–many bear and share the slaveowner’s last name: Pettway. The town’s only road was paved in 1967, around the same time that its ferry service, the most direct way in and out, was discontinued in an attempt to prevent its residents from crossing the river to register to vote.

For generations, the largely isolated women of the Bend quilted. Lacking in other resources, the quilters created geometric patterns out of old britches, cornmeal sacks, and whatever else happened to be around. This sense of chance and improvisation can be felt in their quilts which pulsate with rhythm and color. By the turn of the century, the quilters of Gee’s Bend finally gained long overdue recognition for their remarkable contribution to art. Today, their quilts can be found in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and many others.

Generations embraces the polyrhythmic call-and-response style of the Gee’s Bend: the quilters shared their process with Anna Lucia, who in turn created an algorithm to generate digital quilts that share key elements with the source, yet are unique and surprising in their own way. After months of collaboration, the quilters handpicked exquisite digital quilts to offer to collectors for future generations.

For media inquiries:
Matthew Dunnerstick, CMO, Arsnl
[email protected]
https://arsnl.art
Press Kit: https://bit.ly/arsnlart

SOURCE Arsnl.art