by Anna Frants and CYLAND MediaArtLab
Media installation
Animation, programming, real-time web cams located around the globe, 2020
In the harsh reality of today, when the planet is overtaken by a pandemic, the communication is impeded, and anxiety has seized the world and human brain, the artist offers an unusual protection to us.
Amabie (アマビエ) is a supernatural character in Japanese mythology. Amabie is a cephalopod mythical being that instructs a person to draw a picture of him-or herself for the protection from diseases or death. The spread of coronavirus infection has brought society’s attention once more to Amabie and his prophetic and healing qualities after nearly 200 years of silence. People in Japan send images of Amabie to each other in solidarity with the afflicted.
In Anna Frants’ installation, the mythical character runs all over the world, appearing in the frame of web cams in online mode in Port Lympne in Great Britain, crossing a highway in Norway, watching an eagle nest on Maine’s Hog Island, taking a walk at the bottom of Mount Fuji on Satta Pass in the city of Shizuoka, or possibly standing next to you on a pedestrian crossing…
by Varvara Egorova
(fragment of the video/media)
Exhibition in Borey gallery windows,
St. Petersburg RU (Dec. 2020)