Grace Ezzati

Everlasting Love, 2023
Digital Illustration, 36 x 84 in.

Inspired by Kazuo Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun, my artwork, Everlasting Love 2023, is a digitally rendered illustration that explores the fragile relationship between the natural and artificial world. By creating this work, I want to encourage the conversation between our dependence on the natural world for sustenance, much like Klara's reverent dependence on the sun, and how we must recognize our need for balance which must be found within sustainability in order to preserve the world we depend on.

Brightly coloured and visually striking, this work mixes hard, industrial forms with organic, billowing shapes to reflect the harmonious balance that must be struck to achieve an equilibrium. For this piece, I am drawing inspiration from artists including James Jean and Mariko Kusumoto for their visually stunning incorporation of colour and shapes, weaving an elaborately curated mythology for artists and non-artists equally.

Within the illustration, the sun is a personified entity as a visual representation of how Klara deifies the sun throughout the novel. The sun's round and fluid design contrast with the square hands found hiding throughout the work, representative of the artificial, the simulated, and the industrial. The illustrative design brings a sense of whimsical joy to the space in which the artwork is displayed, while upon a closer look, its maximalist details ensnare even a fleeting audience.

Grace Ezzati is a first-year undergraduate student at NYU Steinhardt and is working towards a BFA. Her art practice continues to grow and develop. Currently, she navigates the creation of art with an interdisciplinary approach, testing an array of mediums, from wood and metal to illustration and film. By combining the freedoms of play and the critical thinking of exploration, she hurdles her way around the different facets of these materials, yielding countless interesting and exciting new artworks each time.