Singaporean artist Wenhui Lim, who works under the moniker Niceaunties, occupies a distinctive position at the intersection of digital art, speculative storytelling and female commentary, using artificial intelligence not as a shortcut but as a generative collaborator in constructing richly layered, surreal worlds that subvert expectations placed on women—particularly the often-overlooked figure of the “auntie”. Rooted in observations of everyday life, travel and the quiet absurdities of daily routines, her practice begins with a slow incubation of ideas—dream fragments, sketches and narrative outlines—that evolve through an iterative dialog with AI tools such as Midjourney and Dall-E 3, where unexpected visual outputs actively shape the direction of her storytelling.

These images are subsequently refined, animated and assembled into cinematic sequences using a suite of emerging platforms, resulting in works that oscillate between fantasy and familiarity, often populated by uncanny juxtapositions—food, animals and human forms coexisting in dreamlike logic informed by kawaii esthetics. Her expanding body of AI-driven films demonstrates not only a technical fluency but also a conceptual rigor, foregrounding the creative potential of human-AI partnerships as spaces of co-authorship, where control is deliberately porous and meaning emerges through negotiation, chance and play.

Take me through the different steps of your creative and production process, from conceptualization to the final piece. Tell me about the techniques, equipment, software, AI programs, materials and formats you use.

I spend a lot of time dreaming and marinating ideas before I prompt text to images in collaboration with AI in programs like Midjourney and Dall-E 3. Sometimes I write down or sketch ideas I dream about, making a list of things I have yet to create. I always start with a broad story outline and a central idea. While creating images in AI programs, new ideas emerge from the organic prompting process or unexpected details generated by the machine, inspiring new directions. The narrative develops through this process. I upscale the images in Magnific.ai before animating them using image-to-video AI programs like Runwayml and PIKAlabs, and edit the sequences into a final video. Often, I return to the first step of creating images to fill in the story before completing the work, incorporating AI music creation and sound editing.

How long does it take you to create a single work, and how do you come up with the different storylines and scenarios for your videos?

Creating a video takes anything from a day to a few weeks, depending on the flow of inspiration. I am inspired by everyday life, travel and events.

How do your sources of inspiration—surrealism, fantasy and kawaii culture—influence your artworks stylistically?

My art tends to be a collage of things and objects that do not typically exist together, such as sushi and legs. I also enjoy the feeling of strange things seeming normal in dreams, only to appear strange upon waking. I express this surreal juxtaposition in my work. Kawaii elements like toys and animals make me happy and frequently appear in my artworks.

What are your thoughts on the AI art community and how do you collaborate with other AI artists?

The AI art community is very new and supportive, comprising individuals from all walks of life, including some traditional artists and many creatives who do not work as artists.

Describe your film on the billboard at 9157 Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles and your exhibition “Collaborations with the Artificial Self” at Art Basel.

“Aunties on Sunset” on the billboard at 9157 Sunset Boulevard featured a 3.5-minute film of aunties’ surreal visit to LA and West Hollywood. Collaborations with the Artificial Self” was a group show with many prominent AI artists through the timeline of AI art. I exhibited three AI videos, which I created, animated and edited in the programs Dall-E 3, Magnific.ai, Runwayml and Suno.ai.

“Dessert Desert” begins with an auntie waking up confused and hungry in a vast desert. Driven by hunger, she starts digging into the sand, and as she digs, various creatures and bits of food begin to appear, eventually revealing cream and giant strawberries. The scene then transitions to a kitchen, where the auntie is enjoying her dessert of crumble, strawberries and cream. The earlier scene is revealed to be a dream induced by food fatigue. The film reflects on our inner worlds and imagined bleakness, suggesting that a small shift in perspective—much like the wordplay between “dessert” and “desert”—can lead to a much sweeter enjoyment of life.

“Auntie’s Time Machine (ATM)” tells how a long time ago, auntie enjoyed a lovely cake. Missing the taste, she decided to travel back in time using her robotic multipurpose camel, ATM, to search for that flavor. Auntie and her machine journeyed far and wide across landscapes of dessert-strewn deserts. They occasionally stopped for a cold beer provided by her robot camel and even faced terror from some cat robbers. Eventually, she found the cake at an oasis, but by then, she was no longer hungry, content with the wonderful memories and adventures she had experienced. Loosely inspired by The Alchemist, this tale reflects on personal journeys and the notion that end goals are not always the most important aspect. This story is part of the “Dessert Desert” series, where Niceaunties explores surprises in barren, desolate landscapes.

“Camelot” relates how while traveling across the dessert desert, Auntie’s robot camel, Auntie’s Time Machine (ATM), ran out of gas. They encountered some mobile shop camels who advised them to refill at the legendary oasis, the Camelot. Camelot is revealed to be more than just a parking lot for camels and lost travelers; it’s a haven for all creatures of burden, known only to aunties and various camels in the multiverse. The shop catalog showcases camels of all kinds, including the cigarettes camel, camels of the round table, a “camelflage” and a very buff camel bodyguard. In this episode, references to pop culture and wordplay are used extensively.