Conversations with an Artist: Alex De Metalisa
written by n0_madz
About the Artist
Alex De Metalisa: originally born in Belarus, they moved to Israel with the fall of the USSR.
Began experimenting with graphic design at age 13, but never did anything with any of their creations.
When the pandemic hit Israel, they were forced to shut down their small business, and, like many of us who were forced to stay indoors, they made the most of their time during quarantine by learning about NFTs and blockchain technology.
During lockdown, they began experimenting with different artistic styles, pushing themselves to create daily and test the limits of their own skills and experience.
Their artistic style continues to evolve, but most recently they have utilized AI technology by training the AI program on images of their own face in order to create elements and features for their work in collage.
"I use an AI trained on my face to create the elements for my collage works" - Alex De Metalisa
Deep Dive: "The Enemy"
"The Enemy" by Alex De Metalisa
Continuing to display their love ❤ of cybernetics and artificial intelligence as running themes throughout their artwork, Alex De Metalisa expands upon the symbolism found within "The Enemy":
"Each figure is a different representation of one self in the different modes of human experience. The robot 🤖 represents the automatic mode, the flow state, where one is just doing without thinking. The head of flowers in the upper left is the visual representation of hope, a symbol for the WAGMI sentiment found in web 3.0. The bruised and battered figure in the upper right symbolizes the trauma of our centered existence. It may be hard to recognize or admit, but instances of trauma do leave marks upon the soul, and these marks affect us on a daily basis. The fourth figure, the face with a head full of lightning, is the autonomous reaction that we all experience when faced with fear and uncertainty."
"[T]here are four angels standing at the four corners of the world, and they manage this human experience that we all know as life. So, symbolizing this angelic presence, here are the four corners of one self that makes up individual experience. An experience that may differ individually but in reality is all one experience."
What's Next?
The artist answered cryptically, "Golden apples."
I pressed for clarification, "as in Greek mythology?". Keeping me in the dark and wanting more, Alex De Metalisa only answered, "Partly 😂."
