SONIC SELF – EXHIBITION
JULY 17-AUGUST 30, 2008
CHELSEA ART MUSEUM, NYC.
Performances by: Drumpaiting/Cyland, Ramya Ramnarayan Nrithyanjali Dance, Damian Catera, Hahn Rowe, Text of Light, Zemi17 GAMELOTRON.
Video by Denny Daniel.
From July 17 to August 30, 2008, Sonic Self gathers local and international artists working with sound art, video/multimedia, and performances to enhance the exchange of new ideas and techniques in contemporary sound art.
YouTube August 28, 2008
While still in school, Anna Frants decided to become an animator. However, in the early 1980s in Leningrad, there was no place to study animation, and traveling to Moscow was required, but she did not go. Instead, she enrolled in the design department at the Mukhina College, where she graduated successfully. However, she never worked in industrial design. She moved to New York to live with her father, where she finally began studying animation. More precisely, she delved into computer animation right as new technologies were emerging, gradually discovering that the technologies themselves fascinated her more than their application. This is how Anna Frants turned to contemporary high-tech art, a field she has been engaged in for the past decade, regularly exhibiting in St. Petersburg. From now on, she promises to appear even more frequently, as this year her joint project with the State Center for Contemporary Art (GCSI), the media laboratory Cyland in Kronstadt, is gaining momentum.
Technology either creates an alternative reality, as demonstrated at the recent Cyberfest at the Peter and Paul Fortress, where Anna Frants invited visitors to wear special glasses that altered the speed of the image depending on the viewer’s movements. In the Borey hall, these glasses allowed visitors to create a living, swaying shadow of an olive tree.
Or, technology convinces you that the alternative reality is you. This is what Anna Frants plans to show in Borey. In one of her new installations, two real fish from Kuznechny Market will have conversations in a setting surrounded by fruits, shells, glasses, and other elements of classic still life, both grand and simple. The setup is rather simple: the dialogue text will be projected onto a screen in the form of speech bubbles, creating a kind of three-dimensional comic strip. However, importantly, the artist does not know in advance what the fish will discuss. The text will be randomly pulled from blogs by a program specifically created by Anna Frants for this purpose. The viewer is free to read or ignore the text, but should understand this: while they watch the fish converse, life elsewhere is happening in much more exciting ways.
Afisha Moskva December 10, 2007
February 16, 2007
81 Wooster St. 4th Fl. NY, NY 10012
Tel: +1 212 343 0104
Email: info@frantsgallery.com
Frants Gallery Space (NY) invites you to a preview exhibition of works by artists of the Sterligov Group, ahead of its official opening in October 2007 in New York.
Founded in 2002, Frants Gallery Space is the only gallery in the United States representing contemporary art from St. Petersburg, ranging from the Arefiev Circle masters to the abstract paintings of Valentina Povarova.
The founder of the gallery, Anna Frants—a media artist and curator—has been actively involved in organizing exhibitions in St. Petersburg and abroad for several years. These include:
the Art Boat arts festival (New York, 2001)
the international exhibition Touchme at the Anna Akhmatova Museum (St. Petersburg, 2003)
Broadway Gallery (New York, 2004)
Sarcophagi, Ghanaian Style, or The Funeral of a Dreamer (Berlin, 2005)
Hackers and Crackers, held in April 2006 at the Youth Educational Center of the State Hermitage Museum
the solo cyber- and video-art exhibition Visionary Dreams No. 2391–95 at Borey Gallery in December of last year.
In recent years, Frants Gallery Space (New York) has exhibited works by artists such as Alexander Arefiev, Vladimir Shagin, Richard Vasmi, Valentin Gromov, Elena Gubanova and Ivan Govorkov, Valentina Povarova, Pelageya Shuriga, Galina Pisareva, Alexander Baturin, and many others.
In St. Petersburg, the gallery plans to broaden its focus and, in close cooperation with the St. Petersburg branch of the State Center for Contemporary Art (NCCA), will organize exhibitions featuring new technologies and video screenings.
We look forward to seeing you on February 16 at 6:00 PM at: 23 Rubinstein Street, Apt. 39, 6th Floor, St. Petersburg Phone: +7 812 764 8337
Information Agency Culture February 16, 2007
