Solve the Equation?
Math-based problems seem a nightmare for the humanitarians. Each time one tries to force a process where a simple calculation needs to be used, a humanitarian will roll up their eyes to avoid answering. However, brainteasers and equations are no strangers to artists. Complicated imagery and visual puzzles may be even more challenging than a set of numbers with their pure logic and stability. The term "equation" here has different meanings for all participants: some understand it is a brainteaser that will trick the viewers; for others, it is a branch of ordered chaos where an artist plays God.
The show's name should not be understood as a grammatical term but as a tone of surprise that any humanitarian has when someone offers them a math problem. The link to the exhibition is a serial number the web-construction kit gives every new user who starts working with this interface. This way, every element - web page, artists, and their works are parts of a more significant equation where each piece is a summand.
Artists: Gentle Women, Anna Katsur, Peche, Arseny Popov, Sofia Mikhaylova, Aleksandra Mitlyanskaya, Katerina Seryoznaya, Anna Sapunova, Aaron Smyth, Yekaterina Starovoitova, Evgenia Sterlyagova, Anastasia Voronkova, Siarhei Yazlavetski
Curator: Alexandra Orlova
Curator's assistant: Sophia Lamzina
Anna Sapunova
Kitsch Parade
Video
2020
Sebastian
Video
2020
Anna Sapunova works in the field of camp and kitsch, planting hidden messages into her visual language. Here, the artists work with post-virtual bodies. Her heroes live in the real world but behave like virtual avatars in Sapunova's hands. Both videos seem to be separate works, which have zero connection. However, a phone receiver is a slight link between these two worlds. What valuable information the girl from the Kitsch Parade passes to the boy from the Sebastian video will remain a mystery that the artist wants her audience to ponder.
Kitsch Parade
Video
2020
Sebastian
Video
2020
Anna Sapunova works in the field of camp and kitsch, planting hidden messages into her visual language. Here, the artists work with post-virtual bodies. Her heroes live in the real world but behave like virtual avatars in Sapunova's hands. Both videos seem to be separate works, which have zero connection. However, a phone receiver is a slight link between these two worlds. What valuable information the girl from the Kitsch Parade passes to the boy from the Sebastian video will remain a mystery that the artist wants her audience to ponder.
Alexander Kulikov (Peshe)
Belweder Mystery
Digital collage
2020
This work is a reflection on the events of the 2020 pandemic. Each element is a valuable element in the twisted plot of the collage. The Belweder palace grounds transform into a stage for the art of all times and epochs, where ancient sculptures, graffiti, and digital structures unite to face the unknown.
Belweder Mystery
Digital collage
2020
This work is a reflection on the events of the 2020 pandemic. Each element is a valuable element in the twisted plot of the collage. The Belweder palace grounds transform into a stage for the art of all times and epochs, where ancient sculptures, graffiti, and digital structures unite to face the unknown.
Evgenia Sterlyagova
Kant 8bit
Video
2020
Video games often help us to understand complicated constructs during the play – this is a thought Evgenia Sterlyagova planted in her video. Using the setting of a popular 8-bit game Contra, she highlights the moral questions two soldiers must solve during their quest. In order to help them during their journey Sterlagova plants Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason ideology in soldiers' actions. By that, the artist stresses the differences between the human mind and artificial intellect in making such decisions as self-sacrifice for the greater cause.
Kant 8bit
Video
2020
Video games often help us to understand complicated constructs during the play – this is a thought Evgenia Sterlyagova planted in her video. Using the setting of a popular 8-bit game Contra, she highlights the moral questions two soldiers must solve during their quest. In order to help them during their journey Sterlagova plants Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason ideology in soldiers' actions. By that, the artist stresses the differences between the human mind and artificial intellect in making such decisions as self-sacrifice for the greater cause.
Anastasia Voronkova
Titans
Digital collage
2020
The ongoing series Titans is a visual quest for those who live in the city jungle. The artist creates creatures that may develop in a metropolis environment. These creatures will bring no harm to humanity. Their future existence will be a result of literal necessity in such species. The artist explains that the future construction process may rely on the interaction of people with mysterious and unknowable titanic creatures-mechanisms.
Titans
Digital collage
2020
The ongoing series Titans is a visual quest for those who live in the city jungle. The artist creates creatures that may develop in a metropolis environment. These creatures will bring no harm to humanity. Their future existence will be a result of literal necessity in such species. The artist explains that the future construction process may rely on the interaction of people with mysterious and unknowable titanic creatures-mechanisms.
Aaron Smyth
Caoineadh na Maighdine
Single Channel Video
2020
Taking the Pieta as a reference point for this new work, Smyth aims to re-contextualize and reframe this classical motif within an Irish context, shifting the perspective to present a tender reflection of loss.
The perspective angle the artist is using in the piece creates a visual puzzle that gives the viewers hope that the statue may become whole again. The work's title perpetuates and complicates this further in its translation from Gaeigle, primarily the word Caoineadh, which is held between keening, lamentation, and crying.
The work seeks to embody this act of keening in its visual form, loops, rhythm, and recognizable fragments. In mimicking the shape, the intention is for the image to hold the óchón with meaning to be found in its tender silence.
Caoineadh na Maighdine
Single Channel Video
2020
Taking the Pieta as a reference point for this new work, Smyth aims to re-contextualize and reframe this classical motif within an Irish context, shifting the perspective to present a tender reflection of loss.
The perspective angle the artist is using in the piece creates a visual puzzle that gives the viewers hope that the statue may become whole again. The work's title perpetuates and complicates this further in its translation from Gaeigle, primarily the word Caoineadh, which is held between keening, lamentation, and crying.
The work seeks to embody this act of keening in its visual form, loops, rhythm, and recognizable fragments. In mimicking the shape, the intention is for the image to hold the óchón with meaning to be found in its tender silence.
Siarhei Yazlavetski
The Emoji Spectrum: A Journey into Complex Feelings
Art Producer: Aleh Razhkou
2023
"In an age where much of our communication takes place through social networks and messaging apps, the nuances of our emotions often get lost in translation. Messages that we send digitally can be easily misinterpreted, especially when it comes to conveying our emotional states. While emojis have become a staple in our online conversations, their limited range can sometimes fall short in expressing the depth and complexity of our feelings. Recognizing this gap in emotional expression, I embarked on an art project that seeks to explore the rich landscape of inter-emotions using Generative Artificial Intelligence.
The result of this artistic endeavor is a captivating set of emojis, or "smiles," that go beyond the confines of traditional emoticons. These emojis are designed to convey intricate and multifaceted emotions, offering a refreshing departure from the standard palette of smiles. What sets them apart is their inherent ambiguity, reminiscent of a Rorschach test, which invites viewers to engage in interpretation and introspection. Each emoji is a vibrant burst of color, departing from the conventional yellow hues of standard emojis. The use of gradients in the emoji faces adds an extra layer of complexity, enabling a diverse range of possible emotional interpretations."
The Emoji Spectrum: A Journey into Complex Feelings
Art Producer: Aleh Razhkou
2023
"In an age where much of our communication takes place through social networks and messaging apps, the nuances of our emotions often get lost in translation. Messages that we send digitally can be easily misinterpreted, especially when it comes to conveying our emotional states. While emojis have become a staple in our online conversations, their limited range can sometimes fall short in expressing the depth and complexity of our feelings. Recognizing this gap in emotional expression, I embarked on an art project that seeks to explore the rich landscape of inter-emotions using Generative Artificial Intelligence.
The result of this artistic endeavor is a captivating set of emojis, or "smiles," that go beyond the confines of traditional emoticons. These emojis are designed to convey intricate and multifaceted emotions, offering a refreshing departure from the standard palette of smiles. What sets them apart is their inherent ambiguity, reminiscent of a Rorschach test, which invites viewers to engage in interpretation and introspection. Each emoji is a vibrant burst of color, departing from the conventional yellow hues of standard emojis. The use of gradients in the emoji faces adds an extra layer of complexity, enabling a diverse range of possible emotional interpretations."
Gentle Women
Dirt
Video performance
2011
The cliché understanding of which phases a woman's life must have was created ages ago. The Gentle Woman collective often criticizes a more contemporary version that originated in the 20th century: finish school, get a university degree, find a husband, and give birth to children.
The part when a girl must get married is the main focus of this video performance. Two young women get involved with the surroundings that metaphorically transform their naive and innocent understanding of the formula society presents them. The dirt here is not a negatively charged particle; dirt is every thought and doubt a woman meets during her lifetime when someone tries to fix her choices into a set of rules produced by social expectations.
Dirt
Video performance
2011
The cliché understanding of which phases a woman's life must have was created ages ago. The Gentle Woman collective often criticizes a more contemporary version that originated in the 20th century: finish school, get a university degree, find a husband, and give birth to children.
The part when a girl must get married is the main focus of this video performance. Two young women get involved with the surroundings that metaphorically transform their naive and innocent understanding of the formula society presents them. The dirt here is not a negatively charged particle; dirt is every thought and doubt a woman meets during her lifetime when someone tries to fix her choices into a set of rules produced by social expectations.
Yekaterina Starovoitova
Forest Spirits
Photographs
2023
This ongoing series works with the reality of myth. This world has a lot of secrets and challenges. How the artist makes her models to pose reminds us of ancient archetypes one can find in each culture. The fact that the viewer never sees the model’s face always raises the question of how real is the world Starovoitova that fixates in her imagery.
Forest Spirits
Photographs
2023
This ongoing series works with the reality of myth. This world has a lot of secrets and challenges. How the artist makes her models to pose reminds us of ancient archetypes one can find in each culture. The fact that the viewer never sees the model’s face always raises the question of how real is the world Starovoitova that fixates in her imagery.
Aleksandra Mitlyanskaya
Mirror
Video
2021
A static image of the mirror is an analog portal to virtuality. One spots only a reflection on this surface, but others find new personalities and characters.
This video still-life interferes with the multilayer understanding of the nature of the surreal and illusional, which are so typical for Mitlyanskaya's works. The seeming stillness of the mirror is just a trick the artist wants you to believe in. The moment some blurb appears on its surface, many possible visual scenarios may appear in the viewer's imagination.
Mirror
Video
2021
A static image of the mirror is an analog portal to virtuality. One spots only a reflection on this surface, but others find new personalities and characters.
This video still-life interferes with the multilayer understanding of the nature of the surreal and illusional, which are so typical for Mitlyanskaya's works. The seeming stillness of the mirror is just a trick the artist wants you to believe in. The moment some blurb appears on its surface, many possible visual scenarios may appear in the viewer's imagination.
Anna Katsur
Algorithms of Infinity
ML apps, Adobe Photoshop
2023
The piece represents a stunning blend of computational artifice and the eternal beauty of nature. The painting is composed of intricate fractal structures that swirl and intertwine. It explores the infinity of mathematical sequences and their representation in visual art.
Each segment of this artwork reveals a delicate balance between order and chaos, between algorithms' predictability and the natural world's unpredictability. It raises questions about the nature of reality, the limits of human understanding, and the place of artificial intelligence in our world.
Algorithms of Infinity
ML apps, Adobe Photoshop
2023
The piece represents a stunning blend of computational artifice and the eternal beauty of nature. The painting is composed of intricate fractal structures that swirl and intertwine. It explores the infinity of mathematical sequences and their representation in visual art.
Each segment of this artwork reveals a delicate balance between order and chaos, between algorithms' predictability and the natural world's unpredictability. It raises questions about the nature of reality, the limits of human understanding, and the place of artificial intelligence in our world.
Arseny Popov
Organoid Intelligence App
Video
2023
Post-humanism is one of the main of Arseny Popov's professional interests. This area allows him to explore body transformation, immersive virtual environments, digital avatars, etc. The artist's new app offers his possible users a reality where they are creating a new preinstalled form of life that should become a digitized extension of the user.
Popov's statement on that piece declares: "Welcome to the app that allows you to cultivate and customize your very own organoid intelligence, evolving and adapting to your needs and desires throughout your lifetime. Upon expiring your body's lifespan, this organoid intelligence will craft an enhanced version of you, incorporating all accumulated experience. It will transfer a copy of your consciousness and memories for continued existence. A Tamagotchi that grows and evolves with you and within you!"
Organoid Intelligence App
Video
2023
Post-humanism is one of the main of Arseny Popov's professional interests. This area allows him to explore body transformation, immersive virtual environments, digital avatars, etc. The artist's new app offers his possible users a reality where they are creating a new preinstalled form of life that should become a digitized extension of the user.
Popov's statement on that piece declares: "Welcome to the app that allows you to cultivate and customize your very own organoid intelligence, evolving and adapting to your needs and desires throughout your lifetime. Upon expiring your body's lifespan, this organoid intelligence will craft an enhanced version of you, incorporating all accumulated experience. It will transfer a copy of your consciousness and memories for continued existence. A Tamagotchi that grows and evolves with you and within you!"
Katerina Serioznaya
Russian Matrix
Object
2018
This piece is a screen where spectators see typical Russian environment questions. Renowned philosophers, thinkers, and revolutioners of the 19th century also raised these questions. Until now, people have been unable to answer them in the matrix of Russian consciousness. In their search for utopia, the system constantly glitches, which creates a number of the same questions with answers that lead nowhere. To answer the <What to do?>, a Russian always tries to choose between <endure> and <wait>, and <Whose fault is it?> has variants <not me> or <them>. The irony of this situation is that the Russian mind has no other type of answers to these simple questions. By choosing any solution, the answer will reappear again.
Russian Matrix
Object
2018
This piece is a screen where spectators see typical Russian environment questions. Renowned philosophers, thinkers, and revolutioners of the 19th century also raised these questions. Until now, people have been unable to answer them in the matrix of Russian consciousness. In their search for utopia, the system constantly glitches, which creates a number of the same questions with answers that lead nowhere. To answer the <What to do?>, a Russian always tries to choose between <endure> and <wait>, and <Whose fault is it?> has variants <not me> or <them>. The irony of this situation is that the Russian mind has no other type of answers to these simple questions. By choosing any solution, the answer will reappear again.
Sofya Mikhaylova
Eye in the Window
Video
2020
The involuntary period of self-isolation became an inspiration source for many artists. It highlighted the strongest and the weakest sides of many people. For Mikhaylova, it became a creative meditation period where she could concentrate on simple things.
The multiscreen method she uses is something the post-internet generation sees themselves through. It demonstrates only the important paraments which tell you a riddle about the whole picture.
Eye in the Window
Video
2020
The involuntary period of self-isolation became an inspiration source for many artists. It highlighted the strongest and the weakest sides of many people. For Mikhaylova, it became a creative meditation period where she could concentrate on simple things.
The multiscreen method she uses is something the post-internet generation sees themselves through. It demonstrates only the important paraments which tell you a riddle about the whole picture.
Sophia Lamzina
Curator's assistant
Photocredits: Anna Katsur, Peche, Katerina Serioznaya, Yekaterina Starovoitova, Anastasia Voronkova, Siarhei Yazlavetski
Video: Gentle Women, Arseny Popov, Sofia Mikhaylova, Aleksandra Mitlyanskaya, Anna Sapunova, Aaron Smyth, Evgenia Sterlyagova
Video: Gentle Women, Arseny Popov, Sofia Mikhaylova, Aleksandra Mitlyanskaya, Anna Sapunova, Aaron Smyth, Evgenia Sterlyagova
All photo and video materials belong to their owners and are used for demonstration purposes only. Please do not use them in commercial projects.
