Orchid Enso

The Enso is a circular symbol deeply rooted in Japanese Zen Buddhism. Created with a single, fluid brushstroke, its significance extends beyond its appearance to the very act of its creation. 

Sometimes depicted as a complete circle and other times left open, Enso symbolise the cyclical nature of existence, perfection in imperfection, and completeness in incompleteness. This paradoxical quality reflects the Zen understanding of the world, where apparent contradictions coexist harmoniously.

To create this new series of works, we used our custom AI Orchid model trained on hundreds of images of orchid species belonging to the 61 genera that begin with the letter "A", according to the Kew Botanical Gardens' official plant database.

We then adapted the model to grow complex, high resolution images of fictional orchid species in the form of Japanese Zen Enso. A selection of these remarkably intricate images are shown below.