Panpan

THE ADMONITIONS SCROLL RESTORATION PROJECT

《女史箴圖》修復計劃

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Panpan Yang

AI art/limited-edition handscroll

giclée fine art print on kozo paper 

5 +1 artist proof 

2025- present

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Might generative AI enable a reversal of the traditional scholar–artist divide, whereby the vocabulary of close visual analysis—typically developed through art-historical training—now informs the writing of prompts for AI image creation? What role will generative AI play in the reinterpretation and reinvention of cultural heritage today? 

 

About 1,500 years in age and in the collection of the British Museum, The Admonitions Scroll is missing its first three narrative scenes. A later, twentieth-century copy of the scroll, now in the Palace Museum in Beijing, is complete in twelve scenes, yet it is an ink-outline copy. In 2025, I trained generative AI to study the use of colors of the British Museum copy and the composition of the Beijing Palace Museum copy so as to "restore" The Admonitions Scroll. The AI-generated image was then printed on kozo paper at a fine-art printing studio in Hong Kong and mounted as a scroll in Handan, Hebei Province. The result was the first edition of The Admonitions Scroll Restoration Project.

 

The calligraphic inscriptions on the scroll pose a particular challenge in AI image creation. It seems to me that the unexpected downtime, latency, or other service disruptions that users experience while working with generative AI—as well as the pixels of AI images that do not fully follow the prompt writer’s instructions—too, have important stories to tell.

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For acquisition inquiries, please contact 

smallgallery@outlook.com

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Special thanks
Qu Leilei
Qiu Jinxian

Shane McCausland
Sharon Jiaqi Zhang
Wang Ran 
Bryan Tong
SpectrArt Hong Kong Fine Art Printing