Martha Fiennes is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and artist. Her multi-layered work is now increasingly informed by technological developments and ideas in contemporary art practice while remaining resolutely the creative expression of a highly gifted filmmaker.
Fiennes has directed feature films including the sumptuous Russian period piece Onegin which won the Tokyo Film Festival and was nominated for a BAFTA for Best British Film. Her second feature Chromophobia, both written and directed by Fiennes, was applauded for its powerfully contemporary style and closed the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.
Since 2011, she has been working on a new series of projects using a pioneering form of generative AI technologies. Fiennes’ first generative moving-image work, Nativity (2011) was showcased extensively including an exhibition in 2018 at The Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia, in the Palace Square, to coincide with the acquisition of 12 Piero Della Francesco works into the museum.
Fiennes’ latest AI driven moving-image artwork, Yugen (2018), features the actor Salma Hayek Pinault and was premiered to wide acclaim at the Palazzo Grassi at the Venice Film Festival 2018. Yugen has subsequently enjoyed high-profile screenings including The Serpentine Gallery during Frieze London where it was the subject of a discussion hosted by globally renowned curator Hans Ulrich Obrist.
Subsequently Yugen was screened at LACMA for the inaugural Frieze LA in 2019 and at Christies’ New York where it headlined the Art + Tech Summit in 2019. Yugen was also screened on the IMAX at The Science Museum, London, in 2019 where it was the centrepiece of a debate about the future of art & AI.
