Buttons Operated by Aunties’ Thumbs (BOAT)
Video, 2023
About the artwork
In Auntieverse, businesses defy the usual logic of specialisation and mass production. The Aunties’ button production shop, BOAT, produces a range of items we love to push and poke, from belly buttons and elevator buttons to button mushrooms. Operated by giant hands and fingers that ensure quality control, and occasionally supervised by auntie’s cat assistant, BOAT sails the seas and docks in harbors, catering to customers' pressing needs.
Created in Dalle3 and animated in Runwayml.
AI generated music by Niceaunties, Sound design by Niceaunties
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.