She Is the City by Joeri Kassenaar

About "She Is the City"

by Joeri Kassenaar

About the artwork

This fascinating and futuristic drawing shows a cybernetic female face almost completely absorbed in a dark, high-tech cityscape. Balancing between portraiture and a dystopian city scene, the image immediately evokes associations with science fiction such as Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell or Cyberpunk 2077.

What we see:
Face of a woman:
The woman is at the centre of the image, with an almost perfectly symmetrical, smooth and unnatural face. Her red, brightening eyes immediately draw attention. Her skin is worked with a grid structure, as if partly made of digital lines and texture. She is both human and mechanical.

Cybernetic elements:
On the left side of her face and shoulder, parts of a city or machine seem woven into her body - wires, circuit boards, neon lights, buildings. Her forehead seems to bear a city map, as if she herself is a piece of the city.

Background:
The background shows a rainy night city with faintly lit buildings, neon lights and falling raindrops. The colours are cool blue and pink, with a typical cyber-noir atmosphere: mysterious, lonely, and steeped in technology.

Symbolism:
This does not seem like an ordinary portrait, but a visual metaphor:

A woman no longer separated from the city - she is the city. Or perhaps an AI that has gained consciousness.
Her gaze is calm but piercing, like someone who knows everything but says nothing.

Summary:
A visually and thematically rich depiction of a cyberwoman in a dystopian megacity, where man and machine merge into something new - something impressive, something ominous.

Created by Joeri Kassenaar with support from AI.