Jesse Woolston

To capture the divine power of nature. 🌊 Sitting down to create, I'm highly conscious of how art can impact the viewer in many dimensions. From being technically interesting, philosophical, or purely emotional, I observe what target to pull from and what balance of each quality I should use. I have been getting an immense sense of satisfaction from connecting to the deep emotional weight that comes from my experiences as a child in the ocean. To feel subservient to an unconscious, senseless, enormous undulating body, has always struck a sense of fear in me. Turning that fear and respect for the natural order has given me the ability to tap into an emotional reference for when I design my simulations. This is an example of how I draw on that feeling of the menacing qualities of the ocean and how I can turn that raw, primal, and instinctual injection of emotion into beautiful art. #art #jessewoolston #installationart #nature

Friends, I’m excited to unveil a global collaboration with @dior this year. An international installation series of boutique, site specific, and special projects where performance and physics come together, shedding light on the Dior legacy and Kim Jones’ (@mrkimjones ) Dior Summer 2023 men’s collection. 
 I bridged history and the contemporary with this work, using the essence of Christian Dior as an individual, Villa Les Rhumbs, and Jones’ inspirational collection. My fluid simulations were driven by archival audio recordings of Christian Dior speaking about his philosophy, expressed through combining the turbulent waters of the English Channel and the soothing ambience of the pond at the Villa Les Rumbs, capturing the essence of Monsieur Dior’s youth in Granville. The composition aligns the birds eye perspective from left to right, capturing the ocean and the family’s cliffside garden, reflecting Dior’s strong connection to nature. The flowers, digitally modeled by hand, resemble some of the different species in the Dior garden. First they bloom, evoking spring and summer, and then they are transformed by palettes balancing the nuances of the garden with the colors of the season’s designs. Each element embodies the founding-couturier’s inspiration and Kim Jones’ contemporary vision. To be able to express my love of art, fashion, and nature with this collaboration has been a joy and blessing. I am especially appreciative of Kim Jones for his artistic vision, I found inspiration came quickly and naturally. Thank you to Dior, Luca, Diva, and Bertille for their exceptional work, the opportunity, and embracing my conceptual ideas and instincts. I feel an immense amount of fulfillment with this work and how every quality has intentionality. I’m incredibly excited for this global venture and look forward to seeing where this collaboration takes us this year. 🖤🌊 #dior #jessewoolston #kimjones #menssummer23

I’m so proud to unveil my latest installation, a collaboration with @stevereich & Orchestra Victoria for a sold-out, 1,000 seated performance of 60-minute ‘Music for 18 Musicians’ at the Royal Exhibition building for @nowornever.melb Below I’ll explain how I built the artwork: 1) Before any creation, I sat down with the score and one of my professors to discuss the work over a 6-hour period. Music for 18 Musicians centers around 11 different musical chords, where each section corresponds to a specific chord, resonating with constant variation in orchestral texture and rhythmic theme. The piece starts with Pulses, moving through all the chords, then elaborating on each chord in its corresponding section, finally ending back with the Pulses. 2) I didn’t want to create an art piece that was sensationalistic, intimidating, or overwhelming. Instead, I aimed to capture the stasis that the music instills in the listener. I ventured out to the bottom of the North Island in New Zealand, where I discovered an isolated waterfall. I sat in front of it, observing its fluid flow patterns, noting the feeling of mesmerizing stasis it put me in and the inspiration I felt. 3) The colour revolves around a new custom algorithm designed to function as an auto-painter. As the simulation runs, the auto-painter sweeps the particle system with colour from right to left in real-time. The auto-painter generates consistent, subtle variations in each stroke while drawing from a colour bank that exhibits constant variation. 4) The colours choice draws inspiration from the fluid flow of nature, encompassing a diverse range of waterfalls and natural scenes. Some colours intentionally clash to reflect dissonances in the music, while others remain simplistic and balanced to mirror consonances. Each colour combination aligns with the 11 different chord groups. The colour groups rotate and repeat constantly through the art piece with varying detail. For instance, a blue and red pairing, as they cycle through, will exhibit subtle differences each time they are painted and seen in the simulation. Thank you to @semipermanent for making this happen! #stevereich #jessewoolston #orchestravictoria

#AutodeskPartner The Still White Collapse, where construction meets creation, and the work takes its final form. From steel and simulation to paint, motion, and light, the sculpture is installed and brought to life with precision, structure, and nature in perfect tension. Special thanks to @autodesk for helping produce this behind-the-scenes film, and for bringing the vision to life acting as the backbone for the engineering and fabrication design, through the ongoing use of Autodesk Maya. #MakeAnything

#AutodeskPartner The Still White Collapse, where art, engineering, and nature converge to embody the beauty and peril of Piha Beach, New Zealand. From sketch to fabrication models, to simulation, stainless steel, and heavy body impasto, every plate, weld, bend, and brushed surface, shaped to capture the moment structure moves into motion, and motion into human expression. Special thanks to @autodesk who made this possible, enabling me to create a behind the scenes look at my sculptural process, and by using Autodesk Maya to make fine art engineering and fabrication feats possible. #MakeAnything

The Tempest, Unveiling my next simulation model. The culmination of five months of precise construction, The Tempest unites art and natural phenomena into a confrontation of the Sublime, the meeting of awe and terror, beauty and destruction. Asking the question: what does it mean to stand before nature in unachievable realities? Atmospheric systems are reconstructed from the ground up, from the vast rotational dynamics of the storm and mesocyclone to the microstructures of the funnel, debris field, and turbulence layers. Each coded element interacts in real time within the model, allowing the simulation to behave as an evolving ecosystem rather than a fixed visual event. This foundation provides the freedom to make deliberate artistic choices, to bend realism toward an aesthetic and conceptual intention. Every parameter, from density to motion, becomes a decision between what nature dictates and what simulation design and art affords. A new page in an ongoing masterwork, soon to be exhibited. I can’t wait to show you soon 🖤🌪️ #jessewoolston #nature #art

In early 2024, I built concept art and simulation design for Tron: Ares. What an incredible experience and a first for me. Reading the script, watching the previs, then designing a suite of concept works with the intention and hope that they might grow and expand far beyond what you could ever imagine. Seeing the completed film filled me with nothing but joy, watching so many ideas come to life like a persistent, heavy-forming clay shaped by the hands of immensely hardworking teams. To have played even a small part in that? A true artistic reward. The credit for allowing me to take a crack at it goes to a friend, mentor, and great source of inspiration, @gmunk . Over the years, Bradley has helped me evolve, grow, and make room to be more myself, a beacon and an example of what it means to pursue mastery and excellence in whatever form that takes for you. I’m incredibly grateful for the chance to contribute to something so significant. Big thanks to @simoneone , who facilitated a wonderful experience and carried a massive lift for the production with nothing but grace. Thank you both! Fulfilling dreams through the kindness of others is profound. See you on the grid 🖤⚡️

The Dissolution Waiapu, my debut work at @christiesinc as part of the Augmented Intelligence auction, currently open for bidding from Nov 20 - March 5th. Inspired by nature, the work is built at the pinnacle of two poles, the AI programming supported computational digital and the entirely hand-tooled steel sculpture. Both in process and result, showcasing the contrast and interplay between man and machine, creativity and process, erosion and innovation, the aesthetical and the visceral. Thank you to Christie’s for the opportunity, to be part of a historic auction and the opportunity to show this other side to my practice. To @ryantaylor3d for unraveling the medium of steel for me, enabling me to learn and help bring my ideas to life through immense commitment, insight, and exploratory enthusiasm. To @ivanjcruz for being there throughout the construction to capture the moments of delicacy and intensity, while also developing systems to enhance the works quality and reliability. Lastly, to you, thank you for supporting the work, the target, and the focal point of my art. 🖤🌊 #art #ai #christies #sculpture #digital

The Colossal Perpetual Drift The pursuit to quantify and understand nature through the medium of simulation has afforded me an opportunity to connect with the self and humanity through its design. When I build simulations, it’s not a matter of just technicality and computation; rather, it is an opportunity to peer into an estimation of how nature expresses itself and to connect as an individual in the same way. To put forth, the paradoxical nature of a river and its waterfall, an embodiment of beauty in flow, but being constructed from and in a constant state of erosive destruction. The river, a force of ceaseless motion, wears away the earth, tearing at what once was, yet it appears serene, beautiful, and awe-inducing when it rests in motion. Just as the river and waterfall represent the colossal perpetual drift of serene destruction that embeds itself into the earth, so too are we shaped by experiences, technological innovations, and instincts that carve their way through our lives, altering decisions and directions, consciously or not, in constant flux, eroding the old to rebuild into something new and more refined under our circumstantial needs. Our psychological formations are not static; they evolve through the constant flow of experiences, much like the river carves its path. When observing these impressionistic aesthetical representations of the natural world, we can connect to the self as a means to observe and learn about the dynamics of what makes life beautiful, intimidating, awe-inducing, and profoundly destructive. Love you all. 🖤🌊 #art #simulation #nature #jessewooolston

I’m so proud to have installed “Cacophony in Stillness” onto the largest digital canvases in both London and the west coast of America simultaneously. To immerse oneself amidst towering waves, to witness their raw intensity, mesmerizing beauty, and formidable power, all meticulously simulated, has been a vision I’ve nurtured since the inception of this work. After a successful donation and charity auction of the genesis work for re:wild and @leonardodicaprio in Miami, the series naturally expands to installation on a grand scale. Thank you so much to @digitalartweek and @outernetglobal for exhibiting the work in London. Thank you to @standardvision for exhibiting the work in Los Angeles. I greatly appreciate the support and enthusiasm for the work! 🖤🌊 #jessewoolston #outernet #standardvision #art

Friends, I had the absolute pleasure of collaborating with Dubai’s newest and ambitious architecture marvel, The One & Only, One Za’Abeel vertical resort. The world’s longest cantilever was unveiled this weekend, stretching 230 meters (755 feet) long that will host my latest installation for years to come. The Infinite Constant Front, stretching across the heart of The Link, encapsulates the aesthetics of the surrounding phenomena into a simulation that balances the complex turbulence and simplistic beauty of natural patterns, nestled in the beautiful bridge on a wide range of canvases, suspending 100 meters (328 feet) off the ground. The palettes developed from the Dubai skyline, paired with the landscape’s natural diversity, hand-painted into the simulation, create a subtle supportive environmental ambiance, bringing a vibrant and complex elevation to the environment and beautiful interior design. Thank you so much to @ooonezaabeel and @mtartagency for facilitating the project, allowing my work to elevate the beautiful and profound space, for considering how architecture and art can come together in an aesthetic pairing, and allowing me to expand into new dimensions and canvases with contemporary tools. 🖤🌊

During Art Basel Miami, I auctioned off a new work for Re:Wild, @leonardodicaprio charity with the goal of protecting and restoring biodiversity across the globe. Cacophony in Stillness, a work that captures the dimensionality of nature, simulates three significant oceanic stages, demonstrating the turbulence & chaos that invokes what we consider to be "mesmerizing stillness" when observing the ocean. The simulation demonstrates the range of the ocean in three sections. The brutalist breaker waves, the turbulent cacophony of white water and pigment, then a final rest and retraction from the shoreline. Complimenting the visual work, the music composition considers this same process, a simplistic string line, with underpinned dissonant sul tasto, and turbulence represented with musical texture, the composition captures the balance between simplicity of line, with turbulent underpins. Thank you to Leo, @aspreystudio & alastairjwalker for the opportunity, along with Benny (WCC) for supporting my pursuits. A life changing moment. Thank you to Leo, Benny, and the other collectors for bidding on the work. Knowing I can use my art as a means for good and be around so many thought provoking, scientific, and interesting people was so inspiring. Learning about Re:wild's process of conservation, how expeditions take place, and the support for the local communities perspective and knowledge filled me with excitement. I can't wait to do what I can with my art to further positive incentives! 🌊🌊🖤🖤