While looking at works on digital media artists I discovered the Green Pix project. It is a giant wall on the wall of the Xicui entertainment complex in Beijing that is dedicated to the presentation of digital media art. It is a sustainable structure that harnesses solar power by day and uses this collected energy to illuminate the screen at night. It debuted during the 2008 Olympic games and lined up emerging digital media artists to have their art presented on the new structure. One of these artists was Varvara Shavarova, a visual artist who has had exhibitions in London, Dublin, Frankfurt, St. Petersburg, Shanghai and Beijing. Born in Moscow, she is now based in Beijing. Passed works of hers have included a show at the Morono Kiang Gallery. There, she presented two videos and eight large paintings based on these videos, each depicting an impressionistic illustration of the border between Russia and China. They presented records of the industry and landscape of this area, demonstrating the fictitious nature of this division. In her work, she comments on how the division of two nations merely stems from the politics and culture of these two groups. Other works of hers have combined different mixtures of sculpture, painting, and digital art.
The work by Varvara Shavarova I took a look at was designed for the new GreenPix project. Commissioned by SGP Architects for the media wall, it is a combination of different visual imagery that will be displayed on the side of this building. The video imagery is a combination of the four western elements (earth, wind, fire and air) with the five Chinese (water, fire, earth, wood and metal). These elements are presented through a combination of abstract patterns and colors; the video images glide and merge into one another. With these images, the artist is attempting to comment on man’s interaction with the natural world. By placing these images of the natural world in the middle of a very urban environment, Shavrova wants to demonstrate this fragile relationship man has with his natural environment. By presenting her art in this format, she wants to allow nature to claim back the city.
Shavrova’s installation comments on a very prominent subject in modern society – man’s relationship with his natural environment. In this time of increased technological innovation and demand for industry and manufacturing, it is often we find ourselves creating more and more distance between the natural earth and us. By using digital industry, a very manmade innovation, to display the natural elements, Shavrova demonstrates this distance even further. No longer is the natural world allowed to speak on its own but rather has now been transformed and manufactured through the flow of video and lights. Just by representing the natural in digital format, Shavarova comments on the increased presence of media in man’s daily life and the decreased presence of real presentations of nature.
Overall, I find Shavrova’s work to be successful as it demonstrates, on multiple levels, this conflicted interaction man has with his natural environment. Yet, I do find flaws with the point of her installation. On her website, it is mentioned that an objective of the work is to allow nature to reclaim the urban environment. Yet, by presenting this idea in the form of digital media, I find that this objective does not come across. Because nature is presented using manmade technology, it is not really reclaiming the environment but rather becoming a part of the manmade, something man can further manipulate and distort. In this way, I find Shavrova’s work fails.
In the end, Shavrova’s work definitely conveys the meaning she wants it to display. Given that the natural imagery is presented on a wall powered completely by solar energy, her theme of man’s relationship with nature is further amplified. Also the fluidity of her pieces, the way they are allowed to glide and merge into one another, demonstrates the fluid nature of the elements she is conveying. By allowing the elements to flow into one another and become one another, she comments on the way nature adapts and evolves allowing the natural world to prevail.
tp://www.varvarashavrova.com/
http://www.greenpix.org/
http://www.moronokiang.com/publications/varvara-shavrova-catalog
http://www.moronokiang.com/publications/varvara-shavrova-catalog
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