ART
Virtual Environments Rule the World
The category of the body and its representation in art has changed a lot since the Stone Age, starting from the Paleolithic Venus to the contemporary body without organs. As we look at all those visual strategies, one thing may be said for sure – the transformation of the body is possible because of the artistic interest in virtual environments. Here we will refer to the virtual environments category not only as something that belongs to digital art but as an illusion world cluster that has been in art forever. An artist here becomes a masterful tailor, who knows how to adapt a body to the needs of the time.
Photographer Helena Boutko works with a classical interpretation. She prefers to demonstrate a big headshot in the portraits she produces. By choosing black and white colouring Boutko makes an elegant reference to the decadence period. Her images are full of mystery, so the body category in the photographer’s work is an enigmatic category of a simulacrum – the viewer themselves decide what background those models may have and what stories they are hiding.
Anastasia Soloveva prefers to grab something from the virtual environment and shovel it into the spectator’s face, so this way she visually gives us “a bird”. Soloveva’s interest in poster aesthetics makes her work much more daring because the artist has no interest in social contexts… Art is her calling, so she does her best to enrol more adherents of the cult of creative expression admiration.
This small overview may help to understand how artists work with the body category these days. Some of their strategies reflect on the inheritance of the past, and some have concerns about the possible future… Anyhow, from all of this, we can see that the human body remains an inspiration category in visual art.
This small overview may help to understand how artists work with the body category these days. Some of their strategies reflect on the inheritance of the past, and some have concerns about the possible future… Anyhow, from all of this, we can see that the human body remains an inspiration category in visual art.
Mikhail Mashtakov works with the body of a motorcycle race driver. This anonymous person becomes a part of the artist's representative strategy. However, we never see the race itself, because Mashtakov transfers his racer from one environment to another, so his character can even be found at a space station. A racer can be understood as a digital avatar one may use during gameplay. But unlike the video game industry, the artist doesn’t offer his viewers the to transform the character, on the contrary, he supposes that they are this racer themselves.
This small overview may help to understand how artists work with the body category these days. Some of their strategies reflect on the inheritance of the past, and some have concerns about the possible future… Anyhow, from all of this, we can see that the human body remains an inspiration category in visual art.
Anna Brown
Art Adviser
2020.11.11