Artist Statement by  Dr Lila Moore

© 2024-2025 All Rights Reserved

 

NASA images of forest fires induced by global warming and regions impacted by deforestation were fed into an AI image training model, resulting in shifting patterns. The patterns offer machine-mediated views of the transforming environments and form a visual-textural language. They are juxtaposed with a version of Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Underworld, the oldest written language and readable poetry in the history of the world. This ancient creation myth, a meditation on corporeal and spiritual existence and the powers of destruction and regeneration has remained allegorically pertinent.

 

In this piece, two distinct and remote languages function as mythic and technological lenses, recording and speculating humanity’s cycles of mutation and evolution. The video's visual style is inspired by the two-dimensional and frontal facade of Sumerian artefacts, the naivety and sense of magic associated with archaic myths, and children's perceptions of the world. The powers of destruction and regeneration are seen through the eyes and moving forms of dancing women, the Anzu bird, the goddess' lion, and a serpent.

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The installation consists of several panels, each devoted to a unique theme: Tree Woman, The Forest, Ishtar Gate, The Creatures Panel, and more. Each panel offers a distinct visual-poetry and screen choreography , contributing to the overarching narrative of transformation, myth, and planetary memory.

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The slideshow below presents a curated selection of images from In Days of Yore. Please note that this represents only a limited portion of the complete body of work, which comprises multiple sets of  high resolution still and moving images.