Auntie's Pipe Dreams
Video, 2023
About the artwork
Set in a large studio, the video features transparent acrylic pipes filled with aunties, sushi, frogs and creatures. Incidental modes of transportation are sometimes integrated with bodies, twisting and turning constantly moving as they are funnelled through the pipes. The aunties smile blithely through the dream of sushi pipes. A reflection on how one’s pipe dream might be transparent to everyone else but themselves.
The video is made with the AI programme DALL.E3 and animated with Runway ML Gen2.
Audio explanation
Listen to Niceaunties discuss this work.
Niceaunties is a contemporary artist and designer based in Singapore. Drawing inspiration from the influential women in her family and the distinct 'auntie culture,' her work explores themes of ageing, beauty, personal freedom, and everyday life through AI and digital art. Her life experiences and architectural training inform the conceptual basis of her pieces, while her focus on the nuanced behaviours of 'aunties' highlights the culture prevalent in Asian communities.
These women, embodying a spectrum from strange and funny to mean and kind, profoundly influenced the artist's early life and creative narrative, laying the foundation for the unique storytelling of "Niceaunties." Exploring themes like aging, beauty, personal freedom, and the nuances of everyday life, Niceaunties expresses her vision through the mediums of generative and digital art. Her creations are marked by an amalgamation of surrealism, fantasy, and the vibrant aesthetics of kawaii culture.
Influenced by surreal art, fantasy, and kawaii culture, Niceaunties' art champions empowerment and self-expression.