Vanitas

In Secret Knowledge, David Hockney hypothesizes that many Old Master paintings relied on projection or optical tools. Photographic distortions appear in some of these works, like focus shifts or warped proportions. While completing his MFA, Dalmer taught undergraduate painting and frequently saw students using projectors. He became interested in how cropping, incorrect aspect ratios, and other projection artifacts shaped the final image, and how often these flaws went unnoticed. In exploring artificial aesthetics, he asks: What effect do these visual traits have on us over time? Do we grow accustomed to them? And would viewers in Lorenzo Lotto’s time have noticed such distortions?

In Vanitas, Dalmer uses a similar process. He prompts AI to generate skulls in the style of Renaissance painting, then dithers the images through a custom script, cuts large vinyl stencils, and paints through them, rendering digital ephemera tangible.