EXTRA TERRA

opening night: 14th of November 2025, 17:00
Exhibition: 15 November to 7 December 2025

Welcome to Extra Terra, an exercise in worldbuilding: the imagining and shaping of a cohesive fictional universe.

The exhibition begins with a series of large-format drawings, printed on aluminium, in which a cosmos emerges that is at once mysterious, menacing, and untamed, encompassing spacecraft, planets, vertical cities, and nuclear reactors.

For the design process, collaboration took place with a self-trained offline AI, employed as a tool to generate ideas and explore connections within that world. All exhibited artworks, however, are made by hand: drawn, modelled, and finished in clay and pigment.

Throughout the exhibition run, the world continues to grow. The sculptures are created on-site: modelled by hand and evolving progressively, so that the universe visibly changes and expands.

You are warmly welcome at the private view on Thursday 14 November from 17:00. And please pop in on the days thereafter, when the modelling process truly gains momentum and new sculptures take shape. Feel free to visit, to observe the work up close, or to ask questions about the emergence of this world.

(extended essay below)

EXTRA TERRA
Opening Night: 14 November from 17:00
Exhibition: 15 November – 7 December
Open Wednesday through Sunday, 12:00 – 18:00

BLANCO Lammerstraat
Lammerstraat 31, 9000 Gent

EXTRA TERRA is the continuation of the earlier exhibitions in the AI UNIVERSE series. In this project, I invite you to explore a universe that continues to grow throughout the duration of the exhibition. At the centre are my drawings, printed on aluminium, which depict, among other things, spaceships, planets, vertical cities, and nuclear reactors. These drawings serve as the starting point for the sculptures that I create on site.

With EXTRA TERRA, I lay bare my creative process. The drawings are initial sketches of a new world; the sculptures only truly come into being during the exhibition. My studio temporarily becomes part of the exhibition space, so you can follow how both the artwork and the universe take shape step by step.

Development of a Universe
My artistic practice began in 2010 using exclusively traditional techniques. Everything was made by hand: modelled in clay and cast into finished sculptures. The work was always tangible and present in the space. For me, it was not just about forms, but also about the energy they emitted and the way they influenced the space.

Gradually, I wanted more than just modelling. I wanted to test ideas more quickly and sought greater dynamism and complexity in my images. I began drawing on photos of my own sculptures. By approaching my existing work from a different angle and creating new compositions, I could emphasise movement and energy in ways that were not feasible with clay alone.

The research then evolved into digital drawing tools and laser projections. Lasers that I initially used for light installations and techno parties were projected onto sculptures, which I then photographed. These photos once again formed the basis for drawings that were later printed on aluminium. In this way, I translated the energy of live set-ups into finished artworks.

The combination of traditional techniques and digital editing set my practice in motion: sculptures remained physically existent, but could also be explored and reinvented virtually. The drawings carried both the power of the original sculpture and the freedom of digital interpretation. This phase formed the foundation for other perspectives and more complex compositions, leading directly to the AI UNIVERSE projects.

AI UNIVERSE and AI UNIVERSE 2425
The AI UNIVERSE series built upon my experiments with photography, digital editing, and form research. The sculptural remained my starting point, but I used the visual language to build a virtual world with self-trained offline AI. I acquired a suitable computer and trained the model on hundreds of photos of my sculptures, taken from all angles and digitally edited. Plinths, backgrounds, and shadows were removed, so that the AI's learning process could focus entirely on the formal language.

Thanks to this method, the AI could propose new combinations and conduct visual experiments that I might not otherwise have conceived. AI became a creative partner: it provided unexpected ideas, accelerated visualisations, and broadened my imagination. This resulted in a collaboration where my physical sculptures remain the foundation, while AI is instrumental in building new worlds.

The first results of AI UNIVERSE were shown in October 2023 at Nodenaysteen in Ghent. Visitors saw digital drawings and early steps towards AI-inspired sculptures. With AI UNIVERSE 2425, in May 2025 at Charles de Cordier Fine Arts, I took the next step: forms conceived by the AI were realised as handmade sculptures. Digital designs became tangible works, and thus AI, drawings, and sculptures merged.

The Process Behind EXTRA TERRA
EXTRA TERRA is a step towards a cohesive science fiction universe. The starting point is drawings printed on aluminium: the first stage of a world that continues to grow during the exhibition. Sculptures are created on site, based on the displayed drawings. During the opening evening, the steel armature of a new work will be ready; in the following days, it will develop into a finished sculpture.

The already present, finished sculptures come from earlier AI UNIVERSE projects and demonstrate the level of detail and finish that I aim for.
The modelling process starts from the drawings but allows room for spontaneous choices. As the exhibition progresses, new sculptures continue to emerge, and everything grows along with it.

You will see both completed sculptures from previous projects and the creation of new works. This makes it clear how a universe takes shape step by step and how ideas develop. For me, the project is not just a presentation of results, but above all an open view of the creative process: the universe is never completely finished and continues to expand.

Welcome
EXTRA TERRA places the world-building process at the centre and invites you to follow the growth and development up close. Sculptures, drawings, and the ongoing modelling process together show how my ideas take form in material and space. You can look over my shoulder in the studio, which temporarily becomes part of the exhibition space, including the experimentation, searching, and making that lies behind every work.

You are welcome to return multiple times and see how sculptures change and new forms emerge. EXTRA TERRA is a creation process that keeps moving, growing, and expanding, and I invite you to follow it closely.

Simon Van Parys, 14 November 2025