ANNA FRANTS

This audio-video installation combines sights and sounds of the “Wild North” with the newest technologies. It consists of five old tin cans and a big screen. The viewer handles the cans, and each of them triggers a video on the screen, made in the Arctic and set on the songs of the indigenous people – droning, yet very rhythmical. Judging by the video context, the artist wants to remain a neutral observer. Thus, the viewer gets a portion of control and some food (or fodder) for reflection – on the future of the Arctic and the relationship between an artist and a viewer in contemporary art.

You are remembering your past in fragments, especially when you are moving, but not under your own power. I am a huge sucker for travel, especially train travel - after all, you are in a horizontal position! You can do nothing about it, and yet you are rushing at full speed! Towards your destination.

The viewer is going through a long semi-dark corridor and suddenly right nearby somebody's breathing, heavy and powerful. It's the breathing of an invisible giant. Somewhat farther along, there are sighs of a sleeping child, easy and peaceful. Still farther, some old and, apparently, sick person is wheezing. The exiting viewer is accompanied by a deep sigh of relief. These sounds act as a reminder: We are here, we are always here, we are right next to you. Who are they, the invisible ones? Genii loci? Prisoners of an old fortress? Bogeymen, wood goblins, poltergeists? Inhabitants of our memory? An elementary audio recording awakens ancient animism in the soul of a modern person - everybody is alive; everything is alive.

Gadgets help us narrow down our location, take photographs, analyze, construct dynamic tables and charts, store the accumulated data in the clouds and draw conclusions based on it. They transform the "living" into "dynamic", "warm" — into "favorable temperature setting", and "love" — into "hormonal release". In the installation "Living Tapestry", robotic eyes track the viewer, registering each of his movements and creating in real time a fabric out of video fragments that is similar to "textile pixels" in the traditional tapestries. The servo-engines are clicking, and one can hear the subdued noise of the crowd — it is as if frozen imaged came to life and turned into the tapestry that has taken on a life of its own.

In memoriam of pets…
We see a multitude of multicolored socks alternatively glowing in the dark. Now one of them bursts into a bright light, now another, not having found a pair for itself… perhaps it is being chewed under the sofa…
Viewers are encouraged to bring photos of deceased pets for memorial wall.

In Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment”, Raskolnikov pondered the question: “Am I a trembling creature, or do I have the right?” This installation answers both parts of this question positively: yes, you are a trembling creature, and yes, you do have the right... to tremble from any change in the world, like these felted hats by the Estonian artist, Hannes Kivits. These hats start to move, or rather to tremble, from any gesture by the viewer. Perhaps they literally follow the mandate of Paul the Apostle “to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” Or they remind us that life is movement — unlike the immovable stones in the Arctic Circle, that strangely enough served as an inspiration for this work.

An allegory of anxious states - there is no love, no compassion - just anxiety.
The project represents a carefully produced stage drama whose cast of characters is a casually thrown draping. Its "choreography" is achieved by work of the ventilators of various power levels and the theater lighting. The presented show is meant to evoke an uneasy feeling.

Nowadays, most people get information from the Internet. The available photos of blockaded Leningrad are sparse and tell a mundane and dry story: corpses on roadsides; a woman pulling a dead child wrapped in a shroud on a sled; people gathering water from holes in the Neva; trolleybuses covered with ice on Nevsky.

Our entire life is a struggle. It may take the form of a simple boxing match, or the struggle for daily bread (or vegetables) in the Soviet era, when customers would stand in line for ages at the greengrocer, with cheerful songs blaring from а loudspeaker, and the vendor would try to cheat them on the dirty old scales with rusty weights. In this installation, the viewer is given the chance to take the situation under control: by moving weights from scale to scale, to change the song, to reach a desired balance, and possibly even to emerge victorious from the fight with the vendor, who with every shortchanged gram undermined the struggling Soviet consumer.

Wash, talk, rinse, dry, fold...
Water has the memory of the women whose faces are reflected in the small mirror of the sinks, while they're absorbed in their daily chores.

In the installation of Anna Frants, the baklushas themselves do the work: they beat out a rhythm, following a lead of the invisible orchestra that plays Hungarian Dance No. 5 by Johannes Brahms under the baton of the holographic conductor. They continue to beat out the rhythm even after the music stops.

Problems of an individuum close the rest of the world for him. And, at the same time, they neither concern people around him nor influence the tide of life around him… a tragedy of one is of no difference to millions… any artist experiences his life, his emotions, his relationship with the world and society in his creative works (reflecting upon himself).
A storm in a tea glass – born by the artist’s inspiration – a storm of creativity does not end… it dies with him.

Weather Forecast (exhibited together with the installation Anxiety)
The webcast from the Estonian Coast of the Baltic Sea, audio of the installation Anxiety in real time, parabolic speakers of directional sound.
An artificially created audio sequence of the kinetic installation Anxiety, readable in real time, evokes an uneasy feeling and demands an alternative - the eternal grandeur of sea, forest and its inhabitants.

In this installation, five cardboard TV image tubes are hanging from the ceiling “face down”. A character of the video show on each screen is a drop of water that swells and falls with a characteristic sound as if from the eaves in spring. For a viewer, to watch TV “face up” is not quite natural, but it is the most natural way to observe drippings from icicles on the roof. Viewers should control an urge to step aside (because there is no real danger of getting moisture on their faces), but, instead, enjoy spying and eavesdropping on these drippings – and face the spring.

The pulse of this installation steadily rotates physically and metaphorically, and builds a dynamic that pivots off the masculine and feminine; keeping the viewer naturally suspended into nuanced themes of dominance, possession, submissiveness and youth.

From Wikipedia:
A dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively challenges an established doctrine, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since 18th century, and in the political sense since 1940, coinciding with the rise of totalitarian systems, especially the Soviet Union.

This interactive video project is a kind of an art-game, which involves video and sound artists. It is like they are sharing information. The former submit their works without sound, the latter offer soundtrack for them, written for another occasion. Thus, as in the genotype, parts of independent works combine, and “Touch Me” produces synthesis, which creates new work that doesn’t resemble any of the sources.

In the interactive installation SHADOWS, the artist creates a “coming-to-life” visual and acoustic environment, into which viewers are engaged as both active participants and observers. The abstract concept of time becomes graphic, and viewers document, comprehend, change or justify their understanding of the phenomenon of Time.

Old slide projectors create visuals for the installation: high quality images of new art forms in St. Petersburg. In the same time projectors take part in creation of sound: rhythmical change of frames "sings along" with Brahms' music. This symphony is conducted by a Mac. Spectator selects pictures which he likes from the kaleidoscopic abundance of those, thereby taking part in creation of this world, where old and new technologies achieve ideal consonance and classical music accompanies a rather non-classical look at the city.

What is an unidentified object? Is it a homeless person without ID? Could it be any thing of an unusual shape? In fact, it could be anything about which we do not have enough information.

According to Marcel Duchamp, artists do not necessarily have to create a work of art: they might just choose an unidentified/unknown/found/ready-made object and put it into the context of a museum or gallery, thus turning it into an object d’art.

One character in an old Soviet film claims that he could attach “this thingy” to a readymade object, “and it’s gonna fly”, thus transforming it into an Unidentified Flying Object, which does not have to have the shape of a saucer. Anna Frants, a new-media artist, attaches electronic devices and thingies to her readymade or reclaimed objects. This probably would not make them fly, but it might make them ready to perceive the cosmos and explore chaos.

Project “Bluest of the Seas” begins with the 90-year-old Signora sharing a story from her past with her granddaughter.

In the course of performance, children are encouraged to enliven a small housing development built out of old refrigerators.

“Artist Union” is a reflection on the law of large numbers. Is it applicable in visual arts — to colors in painting, lines in graphics, forms in sculpture, and the image integrity in installations? The law of large numbers is a principle that describes the completion of the same experiment many times. According to this law, the joint action of a large number of random factors leads to a result almost independent of the chance. For example, in the XVI century the length of the English foot was defined, by a royal order, as the arithmetic average length of the foot of the first 16 people leaving the church on Sunday matins. Although the law of large numbers was not yet defined, it serves as the basis for the principle of arithmetic mean used in determining the length of a foot.

The interactive video installation uses the play of sunlight as a visual material.
The possibilities of light used in the installation "In the Shadow of the Olive" also reflect the logic of contrast, touch, "inverse". According to the theory of Vladimir Vasilievich Sterligov - "space penetrates into space".
Entering the circle of light the viewer is involved in the creation of the image - is transferred at the associative level in the world inspired by the proposed video and audio series.
The lacy shade of an olive tree, the rustle of leaves, the mosaic floor and the power of imagination will take you to Greece, where the reflections on the marble of the ancient sculpture play just as they do on your hand, caught in the beam of the projector.

Do you own the shadow cast by trees on a bench if you come to the park every day? The paradox lies in that it seems your own; you got accustomed to it, became intimate with it and came to love it. You involuntarily became the source that throws light. Unlike the unemotional "cold" sun, a person that came to love the shadow radiates warmth - the warmth that is neither rational, nor practical, and it eludes accurate analyzing or computation.

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A modern screen in the room corner showcases the acrobatics filmed by Muybridge about a century ago. In the center, several vises attached to a simple sheet of plywood demonstrate the acrobatics of their own by way of most complex movements. The human acrobats and the tools-acrobats seem to be trying to outdo each other. The people on the screen are naked while the tools are decorated in blinking lights. The jumping athletes demonstrate the capabilities of the human body. The moving vises, that are immovable not only by definition, but аре also meant to make immovable the objects they hold, demonstrate the capabilities of the artist’s imagination.

In the work Reflection on Life No. 125082 the numbering is provisional; let’s say that it starts from the date of birth No. 0, and the image in the Reflection on Life No. 1 should probably be seen upside down, the way a baby is supposed to see it…

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Made in Ancient Greece” is one of the most striking and longstanding projects by the artist. Video stories from various eras are projected on ceramic vessels shaped like vases from Ancient Greece,: running athletes, frames from a family archive, scenes from modern city life… The selection of projected videos is conditioned by the nostalgic intentions of the author, and each work is a journey through an imaginary time represented by classical forms, historical images and creative associations. Known and unknown, “before” and “after”, the juxtaposition of big and small — this is what structures the works of this series. The project is both a study and a reflection on the formal and spiritual meanings of contemporary artistic culture.

From the saying «Чтобы узнать человека, надо с ним пуд соли съесть» (“A man must eat a peck of salt with his friend before he knows him”).

“No. 0” is modular, 3D Public Art installation from the artist’s series, “Explosion of a Can of Condensed Milk After Water Has Evaporated”. Conceptually referencing a computer grid and visually reflecting the infrastructure of a building sans walls – Frants builds an open framework room.

In her work “Obstinacy and Persistence”, Anna Frants reflects on these apparent synonyms. Obstinacy is common to both humans and animals, and even more so to the latter, since the saying goes “obstinate as a mule”, and not the other way around. As for persistence, it is mainly characteristic of people who possess this quality, helping them to win at any work, even as meaningless as the one Sisyphus had. Camus, however, believed that the Sisyphean labor has as much meaning as most of our contemporary jobs in factories or offices. An obstinate creature will make every effort to not budge. But a persistent person will be moving forward or upward, overcoming all the obstacles and being guided by a star in the sky or, by flickers of light running up the tamarind seedpod.

On its face, the installation of a table with desk lamps on it has no artistic value. However, as it is often the case with this artist's works, we should expect the unexpected. The first surprise is that when we switch the lamps on, they pour out the sound and not just the light, and the second is that the light turns out to be moving pictures. The tabletop comes alive with video-memories. They seem to be countless - from a romantic poetry reading under the starry sky to a prosaic view of the rails seen through a gap between the cars of a moving train. Each of us could identify with at least one such memory, but even if not, the tabletop memories will now become our own. When we start interacting with this installation we expect to see some kind of lighting. Instead, we get some kind of enlightening. "Thanks for the memories…"

Anna Frants' «Live cam Renaissance» incorporates а footage in real time and constructed soundscapes to explore the idea of live video streams as a building material for creative construction in the digital age. In collaboration with looduskalender.ee

What were you doing in the winter of 1980? And in the summer? And what made the winter of 2009 memorable for you?

What image will first come to mind late in life if you are to close your eyes? The project Weather Forecast-WINTER/SUMMER is an attempt of the artists together to reflect on the paradox of time that is slow and, at the same time, transient. Winter… summer… winter… summer…

What is an unidentified object? Is it a homeless person without ID? Could it be any thing of an unusual shape? In fact, it could be anything about which we do not have enough information.

According to Marcel Duchamp, artists do not necessarily have to create a work of art: they might just choose an unidentified/unknown/found/ready-made object and put it into the context of a museum or gallery, thus turning it into an object d’art.

One character in an old Soviet film claims that he could attach “this thingy” to a readymade object, “and it’s gonna fly”, thus transforming it into an Unidentified Flying Object, which does not have to have the shape of a saucer. Anna Frants, a new-media artist, attaches electronic devices and thingies to her readymade or reclaimed objects. This probably would not make them fly, but it might make them ready to perceive the cosmos and explore chaos.

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This work is а large-scale installation that is crossing boundaries between art, design and cinema. Like all of Anna Frants’ works, this installation is part fantasy and part instinctive immersion bound by programming and robotics.

Pesterer draws the viewer into a mediated new-media reality made visceral and uncertain by the persistent presence of the two swirling robots intent upon disruption. A live-stream captures the space of the installation in real time, transforming a lived experience into a projected spectacle and blurring the line between the real and the representational.

Snowballs could be sculpted not just out of snow, but also out of synthetic foam, sugar or some other white material. However, for those whose childhood was spent in the former USSR, there is nothing better than cotton wool and starch that were used for homemade Christmas ornaments. In this installation, thus sculpted snowballs are magnified and placed upon a podium, presenting a monument to child’s plays. At the same time, they serve as screens upon which the animation of a snowball fight is projected. Being simultaneously an instrument and a process, this work signifies the quintessence of the game in all its manifestations – from “Life is a game of chance” from the Titanic to Kruchenykh’s and Khlebnikov’s Game in Hell where a snowball would not have too many chances.

From Wikipedia: If paranoia transforms into persecutory delusion or persecution mania, one talks about an isolated delusional disorder. Delusional Disorder is a mental illness that is characterized by the presence of a well-systematized domineering delusion, but, unlike schizophrenia, devoid of quirkiness.

Inspired by the pop art’s idea of «returnings to a reality”, “Fish talk” combines the unified anime style with the realism of still lives by Flemish painter Frans Snyders, while giving its fish characters a chance to speak in real time by borrowing content from Internet blogs.

"Love is a many splendored things...", "Love, I'll be a fool, for you..." — and one could cite many other words of love. Furthermore, if we are to believe Google, quotations about love outnumber quotations on any other subject. In her installation Vagaries of Affections, Anna Frants reflects on this and shows that this feeling could be expressed not just in words, but also in numerous other sounds that are generated in various and never repeated combinations. Some people say that affection is just a chemical reaction, while others believe that we understand that we are in love when love songs finally make sense. This work of the artist demonstrates that, whatever "physicists and lyricists" claim, love is always unpredictable.

The word “hooligan”, which nowadays means “young troublemaker”, “brawler” or “bully”, came into the Russian language from English sounding pretty much the same. There are three versions of the term’s origins: from the name of the Irishman Patrick Houlihan who was going wild in the London district of Southwark; from the word “hooley”, which in Irish means a “rowdy drinking party”; from the name of the street gang Hooley Gang in the northern London district of Islington. The use of the word in English dates to the 1890s, and in the early 20th century it became international.

The interactive artwork “DRUMPAINTING” transforms live sound into moving image, realizing an idea of “colour music” on a modern technological level. Through a computer system devised and engineered by artists at CYLAND Media Lab, viewers play on a drum set to produce a visual unique to and created by their musical performance. As adaptable to any rhythm as it is to any off-rhythm notes, “DRUMPAINTING” has no restrictions in its ability to generate unlimited variations unique to each individual’s own beat.

The first project of CYLAND media art laboratory was cyberperformance “Speedless”, made in the fall of 2007. The author of this project is Anna Frants (New York) with the participation of CYLAND members. A man, involved in performance (“user of video glasses”) controls a video recording, which he sees in video glasses, by movements of his body, changing speed and trajectory of motion. During the demonstration of project there is an interaction with audience (happening) and participants who are located at different geographical locations contact not only artificial reality in glasses, but also an auditory, which reacts to his actions.

It is in the automated kineographs by Anna Frants that the dynamic between light and time is traced historically. These “stories of light” provide contemporary reanimations of one of humanity’s oldest aspirations: capturing movement, and thus time, in light.

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.

Americans use the word “hoist” for the device that the British and Russians call “lift”. But no matter what it is called, this is basically a hoist – something that raises us from the ground, and we, like Antaeus, having temporarily lost our footing, lose our strength. In this installation, the video projector, which is moving with rasping noises on a rail and projecting the video of an hoist shaft on the wall, reminds us of that anxiety. However we see the slides that a couple of old Kodak projectors show at our foot level, and these impressions keep us firmly on the ground.

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The youth, reclining at the feast by sea, wears an animated avatar mask from Fayum funerary portrait, by which the artist ironically eliminates the line between the dust of centuries and the present.

Computer technologies imbue old things with a new life. A soda fountain is transformed into a stylish multimedia device, a time machine of sorts. After inserting а real Soviet three-kopeck coin into a real Soviet soda fountain from the sixties a viewer gets, instead of a glass of apricot soda, a nostalgic video about the fact that time is a relative notion.
A Soviet soda fountain is a familiar thing to any Russian, if not from personal experience then from the movies. After inserting an obsolete 3-kopeck coin into it, the viewer might expect an effervescent drink to please the taste, but instead gets a feast for the eyes and soul: a video about the four seasons and the things past and present.

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