- Echo Gone Wrong - https://echogonewrong.com -

Photo reportage from the exhibition ‘Safeporting’ by Santa France at Kim? Contemporary Art Centre

Solo show “Safeporting” by Santa France is based on animated compositions, designed with 3D animation, using screens, metal structures and wires. “Safeporting” is a medical term to describe a process when a medical practitioner performs procedure while telling the patient about what is happening and what is being done to his body, so the patient would feel safe and undisturbed. But the term can also be transferred to others, more everyday communication situations. Another meaning of the term derives from the computer science – the transfer of software from one system or device to another. In terms of language and initial associations, “safeporting” is a fitting name combining both the intimate and personal with a rational and pragmatic approach to technologies, characteristic of artistic creation.

At the end of last year, Santa France was spotted internationally with her 3D model “Assembly Line” being printed on the German design magazine Form cover; the particular edition was devoted to the topic – Work (Arbeit). It also published an interview with Sunta Frunce and a few other illustrations. To create, Santa France uses Blender, the professional version of the free open source 3D computer graphics software, which she mastered by watching online videos.

From glittering interiors to chilling still lives, the real-life and web works of hers often tend to ask questions and seek answers of how it feels to be alone – to work in solitude, be self-sufficient, how to compensate for the lack of human contact by surfing on the internet and “consuming” inner resources, which leads to topics such as intimacy and personal issues being covered by the work she creates.

Santa France (1993) is a young multimedia artist, graduated from the media arts programme at Liepāja University (2015). Her artistic career path is predominantly related to 3D software and its application for the creation of webcollages, videos, animated GIFs and digital illustrations. Underlying inspiration comes from the internet culture – self-reflection, nostalgia and loneliness and the learning, creation and posting of own works online.

The show at Kim? Contemporary Art Centre is on from 21 February till April 7

Kim? Contemporary Art Centre
Sporta 2 k-1, LV-1013, Riga

Photography: Ansis Starks