“The space penetrates the space.”- Vladimir Vasilievich Sterligov

Dam, Stuhltrager partners with St. Petersburg Art Project to forge new frontiers and find common ground in New Media. Russian artist, Anna Frants’ media installations are total environments that envelop the viewer in image and sound. Her work employs state-of-the-art technologies and is distinguished by precision and direct simplicity. Just as her Sterligovite predecessors conceptually redefined space in paint, Frants utilizes video and audio to reconfigure a viewer’s reality…

Vladimir Vasilievich Sterligov did not transcribe to a particular doctrine nor labor along the lines of set methods. A visionary painterand theoretician, Sterligov defined learning as an experience beyond merely understanding fundamental principles such as light and space. Mastering conventional notion of given ideals is rudimentary. One practices in order find their own, particular aesthetic and conceptual clarity.

IN THE SHADE OF AN OLIVE TREE (2007) 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.

“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.” – A.F. 2007 (Dedicated to Nina Zakharovna Kunina)

SITE SPECIFIC WORK (2008) Anna Frants will unveil a brand new site specific work created for Dam, Stuhltrager’s front windows.