Have you ever felt a sudden, inexplicable wave of nostalgia for a place you’ve never been? Enter the mind of Efe Levent (AKA @cityhermitai), an AI artist, writer, and former anthropologist, whose latest series, “Enter the Jade Palace…,” is serving up exactly that.
Despite being obviously AI-generated, the series paints a mesmerizing and vivid nostalgic trip. Imagine wandering into a liminal, Chinatown-inspired shopping mall that seamlessly morphs into a fantasy-esque palace, and then a dreamscape Chinese banquet hall. The blend of these three settings makes the experience incredibly trippy and sensational. Faded yet undeniably vibrant, the eerily whimsical aesthetics give the artwork an uncanny quality that leaves you hovering between comfort and dread.
Of course, liminal fiction and eerie visuals aren’t entirely new. The internet—both Chinese and global—has long blossomed with liminal-type artwork, massively popularized by the creeping dread of the Backrooms phenomenon and the ‘dreamcore‘ aesthetic. But what Levent does so brilliantly is fuse this global digital nostalgia with distinct Asian motifs, bridging the gap between endless anonymous corridors and the grandeur of mythic palaces.
By turning algorithmic generation into an exploration of memory and identity, Levent proves that AI art can be more than just pixels—it’s an entirely new world-building tool for the internet age.
All images via Instagram/cityhermitai.
