The Aleph

© Sheung Yiu - a silvery spider-web at the centre of a black pyramid © Sheung Yiu - clusters of grapes, snow, tobacoo, veins of metal, water vapour © Sheung Yiu - the multitudes of the Americas View all images ↓
View all images ↓
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In Borge’s short story The Aleph, the protagonist discovers a hole in the basement of his deceased sister, through which he sees everything. Borges listed everything he saw: a Tarot card in a shop window in Mirzapur, all the ants on Earth, the Aleph from everywhere at once…In short, The Aleph contains every image in the universe. I used the list as a prompt to capture the same scene in the real world, and when I ran out of ideas, I used it as a prompt for text-to-image generators.

© Sheung Yiu - a silvery spider-web at the centre of a black pyramid
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a silvery spider-web at the centre of a black pyramid

© Sheung Yiu - clusters of grapes, snow, tobacoo, veins of metal, water vapour
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clusters of grapes, snow, tobacoo, veins of metal, water vapour

© Sheung Yiu - the multitudes of the Americas
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the multitudes of the Americas

© Sheung Yiu - a Persian astrolabe
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a Persian astrolabe

© Sheung Yiu - endless eyes, all very close, studying themselves in me as though in a mirror
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endless eyes, all very close, studying themselves in me as though in a mirror

© Sheung Yiu - simultaneous night and day
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simultaneous night and day

© Sheung Yiu - a beloved monument in Chacarita
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a beloved monument in Chacarita

© Sheung Yiu - a Tarot card in a shopwindow in Mirzapur
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a Tarot card in a shopwindow in Mirzapur

© Sheung Yiu - the Aleph from everywhere at once
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the Aleph from everywhere at once

© Sheung Yiu - my face and my viscera
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my face and my viscera

© Sheung Yiu - The Aleph (excerpt)
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The Aleph (excerpt)