I'm With You

Kevin Esherick

I lost my older brother when I was 20. I don’t talk about it much, but I miss him every day. I’m With You is a series of works imagining what life would look like if he were still here, and depicting how, in some ways, he still is. These works were created by training an AI model on pictures of him, then interrupting the development of each image mid-generation, leaving behind only the hazy imprint of his form. For me, these pieces are reflections on grief and memory, absence and presence, joy and hope. They’re about possibility, what could’ve been, and what lives on. Music was a shared language for us. Each piece in this collection is titled after a song he loved, or would’ve loved. I’m With You is the name of the last album from the Red Hot Chili Peppers—his favorite band—that we were able to enjoy together. Listening to their music brings me closer than anything to the feeling that he’s still with me.

Project Collaborators:

I'm With You was released with Heft Gallery (at the time Tender) online via Verse in October 2024. We held a small, intimate private opening at my apartment in New York on what would have been my brother's 34th birthday. Guinness and Oreos, two favorites of his, were served, and friends and family came from all over the East Coast to be present. It was really special.