Rebirth

A generative system built from the paintings.

Follow one composition as it is arranged.

Begin with the paintings

Source paintings

The marks are his.

Over several years, Baylis extracted individual brushstrokes from his panels: more than a thousand marks, digitised at print resolution and organised into the same layered structure the paintings are built in. Rebirth recombines them. The marks are his. What the system takes out of his hands is the relationships between them, the compositional decisions that, on a panel, take six months.

Authorship and release

What remains.
What changes.

What remains

The marks are his.

What changes

Rebirth arranges the relationships between them.

The discovery lies in seeing what his own marks can become beyond his usual compositional decisions.

Arrangement

One composition, ten cumulative layers.

Each view contains everything arranged before it.

  1. Layer 01 / 10

    Ground

    The first marks establish the frame.

    Cumulative Rebirth layer 01, Ground
    Layer 01 / 10, Ground
  2. Layer 02 / 10

    Foundation

    The bottom layer is added to the frame.

    Cumulative Rebirth layer 02, Foundation
    Layer 02 / 10, Foundation
  3. Layer 03 / 10

    Body

    Large middle marks accumulate over the earlier layers.

    Cumulative Rebirth layer 03, Body
    Layer 03 / 10, Body
  4. Layer 04 / 10

    The Deep

    The deepest dark marks enter the composition.

    Cumulative Rebirth layer 04, The Deep
    Layer 04 / 10, The Deep
  5. Layer 05 / 10

    Shadow

    Further dark marks collect across the existing field.

    Cumulative Rebirth layer 05, Shadow
    Layer 05 / 10, Shadow
  6. Layer 06 / 10

    First Light

    Large bright marks join the arrangement.

    Cumulative Rebirth layer 06, First Light
    Layer 06 / 10, First Light
  7. Layer 07 / 10

    The Weave

    Smaller middle marks deepen the accumulation.

    Cumulative Rebirth layer 07, The Weave
    Layer 07 / 10, The Weave
  8. Layer 08 / 10

    Grace

    A smaller set of marks is added to the composition.

    Cumulative Rebirth layer 08, Grace
    Layer 08 / 10, Grace
  9. Layer 09 / 10

    Sparks

    Small bright marks move through the accumulated field.

    Cumulative Rebirth layer 09, Sparks
    Layer 09 / 10, Sparks
  10. Layer 10 / 10

    Surface

    The top layer completes the arrangement.

    Cumulative Rebirth layer 10, Surface
    Layer 10 / 10, Surface, Rebirth prototype

Print

Composed once. Printed once.

Portrait-format Rebirth print with a circular composition on paper

Every work Rebirth makes is composed once and printed once. The pattern that made it is then retired, recorded in a ledger, and never made again.

Each Rebirth print is a signed one-of-a-kind work on paper, framed, and the only impression of its composition that will ever exist.

Enter Rebirth