December 18–29, 2007
BOREY ART CENTER
58 Liteyni Ave, Saint-Petersburg, 191104
«VISIONARY DREAMS #3245-3350»
Four video installations by Anna Frants in the gallery halls.
The exhibition we present to you is a continuation of a well-known project successfully demonstrated last year. Four gallery halls dedicated to four video installations provide a captivating creative space that leaves no viewer indifferent.
Fish Talk
Cyber Installation
Fresh fish, video projection, global Internet network.
Drawing from the traditions of pop art with the idea of “returning to reality,” Fish Talk combines the unified style of anime with the realism of Snyders’ still lifes. At the same time, its silent protagonists engage in conversations, borrowing real-time information from internet blogs.
Informer
Video, mechanisms.
“As the saying goes, ‘A word is not a sparrow; once it flies out, you can’t catch it.’” This old proverb likely referred to oral speech when it was created. But what happens to spoken words in the information age?
The global internet has turned each of us into an informer, whether we like it or not. An innocent email sent to a friend can be used for advertising purposes, automatically making you a participant—a kind of informant for an informational superpower. While the roles of informants, spies, and agents were once viewed as insulting or negative, today, we hardly realize we have unconsciously become part of the system.
In the Shade of the Olive Tree
(Dedicated to Nina Zakharovna Kunina)
Interactive video installation, 2007.
This interactive video installation uses the play of sunlight as its visual material. The installation’s lighting explores the logic of contrast, touch, and “reversibility.” According to Vladimir Sterligov’s theory, “space penetrates space.”
Viewers stepping into the circle of light participate in the creation of the image, transported on an associative level to a world inspired by the proposed video and audio elements.
The lacy shadow of an olive tree, the rustling of leaves, the mosaic floor, and the power of imagination will take you to Greece, where the reflections on the marble of ancient sculptures play just as they do on your hand caught in the projector’s beam.
A Moment Without Time
Video Sculpture
“A moment in time is a point on the time axis. Events belonging to the same moment are said to be simultaneous. In scientific models, a moment in time corresponds to a system’s state (instantaneous state).”
—Wikipedia
The history of a family as it’s remembered by an old dining table. Generations change, styles evolve, weekdays and holidays come and go.
Conversations, music, the creak of a door, the clicking of knitting needles, and stray sounds from the street mix together. Images and events are shuffled in time, but essentially, nothing changes except the date on the calendar.
Anna Frants is a multimedia artist living in New York. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, she graduated from the Mukhina Academy of Art in 1989 with a solid classical education. She later expanded her interests to include areas like computer imaging and animation.
Anna has received several top awards for best 3D computer animation in prestigious computer graphics competitions, such as the AutoDesk Planet Studio Award. She has participated in and curated numerous art exhibitions in the U.S. and Russia, taught media disciplines and animation for many years, and published articles on art.