(Dedicated to Nina Zakharovna Kunina.)
Video Installation
The interactive video installation uses, as its visual material, the play of sun rays. The capabilities of light, that are used in the installation “In the Shade of an Olive Tree”, also reflect the logic of contrast, touch, “reversity”. According to a theory of Vladimir Vasilievich Sterligov – “The space penetrates the space”.
The spectator that enters the circle of light participates in the creation of an image – he is transported, on the associative level, to a world suggested by the proffered video- and audio-sequence.
The lacy shadow of the olive tree, rustling of leaves, mosaic floor and power of imagination will bring you to Greece where specks of light on the marble of an ancient sculpture play in the same way as they do on your hand caught in a beam from the projector.
ABOUT IN THE SHADE OF AN OLIVE TREE:
Just as her Sterligovite predecessors conceptually redefined space in paint, Russian artist Anna Frants utilizes video and audio to reconfigure a viewer’s reality…
Leaves rustle in wind that is not there. Chirping fills the air from birds that have flown farther than could possibly be heard. The seemingly straight forward pleasures of a sunny day spent “In the Shade of An Olive Tree” provides playful fodder for Frant’s interactive installation. The logic ingrained in how one distinguishes a common setting such as a tree in the sun’s rays is skewed. Video and sound are utilized to manipulate light, contrast, touch and “reversity” within the installation, producing an environment where nothing is rationally as it is naturally perceived.
As spectators enter the frame of projected light- he/she participates in the creation of an image and is transported, on the associative level, to a suggested world by inference.
ARTIST STATEMENT: “The space penetrates the space.”- Vladimir Vasilievich Sterligov
Anna Frants – Interview (2020)
Anna Frants is an internationally known media artist and curator. She graduated from Baron Stieglitz St. Petersburg Academy of Art & Industry and also studied at Pratt Institute School of Advanced Studies in New York.
Anna Frants’ interactive art installations have been exhibited at top venues across the world. Recent highlights from 2009 until the present time include exhibiting in the St. Petersburg Biennial, Moscow Biennial and Polish Biennial, Kuoseino Sato Museum of Contemporary Art (Fukuoka, Japan), The Museum of Art and Design (New York, USA), The State Hermitage Museum (St. Petersburg, Russia), Chelsea Art Museum (New York, USA), RSProjects (Berlin, Germany), VAP / Gogolfest (Kiev, Ukraine) and Transmediale (Berlin, Germany) as well as participating in a 17 day expedition to The Arctic Circle with The Farm Foundation of Arts and Sciences.
Frants is represented by Borey Gallery (St. Petersburg, Russia), Dam, Stuhltrager Gallery (Brooklyn, USA & Berlin, Germany) and Barbarian Gallery (Zurich, Switzerland). Her works can be found in collections of Museum of Art and Design (New York, USA), Kolodzei Art Foundation (New York, USA), Sergey Kuryokhin Center for Modern Art (St. Petersburg, Russia) and private collections.