About the piece

Inventory Numbers is part of the shortlist of the Combine24 generative art competition, hosted by the Finnish National Gallery. To learn more about the competition and see the other finalists in the shortlist, visit the competition website.

An invitation from the Finnish National Gallery

When I first learned that the Finnish National Gallery would host a generative art competition, I immediately knew I needed to participate. Having lived in Helsinki during my studies, the city, its people and museums have a special place in my heart. And of course, I applaud all public institutions embracing code-based art.

I vividly remember many great exhibitions at Kiasma, the Helsinki museum of contemporary art, and specifically the Erkki Kurenniemi show in 2014. His work has had a big influence on who I am today and the work I make, including Inventory Numbers.

Inventory Numbers is based on the CC0 collection data of the Finnish National Gallery. It stood out to me that plenty of the catalogued imagery was portraits, from different centuries and in vastly different styles, some of them of famous personalities, others of unnamed workers.

I started to wonder, who are these people? Why did they end up in these artworks, and ultimately in the collection of the Finnish National Gallery? And, what do they have to do with me, with us, in 2024? Quote from my notes: «All these people in the collection. They all belong together. Yet it’s very coincidental. Bring in today’s people? Myself? My family? Web3 people?»

Of invisible connections and quantum physics

Inventory Numbers portrays the invisible connections and overlaps between all beings. What quantum physics describes as entanglement is here brought to life in silhouettes of human beings from the collection, juxtaposed with silhouettes of people from my own photographic archive.

Their overlapping bodies form a unity over time and space, their vibrations speak of the quantum processes that underlie physical and spiritual entanglement. The boundaries of body, time and space are blurred and a new, shared inventory is created.

Occasionally, the group rearranges their positions, reordering the relations between the portrayed individuals. Robotic voices read inventory numbers from the collection archive in different languages, as if the beings could only be addressed this way. The music, influenced by the collection data, further embodies the ever-changing nature of the piece.