I am Olga Feshina an artist and designer. I am deeply fascinated by the perfection of technological progress. Gadgets, gradually becoming an integral part of our life, attract my biggest attention and this is what my art works reflect.
I was literary captivated by the tech world many years ago. We all keep remembering electronic translators, or the first Internet browsing or super stylish Apple iBook..
Moscow In 2000
I was so delighted by all this that I expressed it in my show of a collection of sport clothes, named “the Internet” performed in the Moscow Museum of Architecture in 2000.
There, models came out with Apple iBooks and had temporary vinyl tattoos with the internet addresses on their bodies. They also wore helmets, which I imagined, in the future would become an integral accessory with built-in smart sensors and telephones.
In ongoing series of artworks New Tech Girls I depict contemporary women who apprehend their inner and external world by means of gadgets and technological innovations. These girls implement technologies in everyday things: they chat on the speaker phone, launch drones, make films and blogs, use VR and AR technologies, explore their feminine gist – all these became common things for them. However they are the same nymphs from classical portraits and genre compositions in its new personification in the new poses with gestures, and they are the ones who have done selfie revolution in social net. I depicted the inner child of “New Tech Girls “ as a baby deer with VR headsets, which is mesmerised in stunned in admiration with the perfection of virtual world.
New Tech Girls’ Exhibit at Google in NY
The topic of my show New Tech Girls at Google in New York, curated by Megan Green, represent an interaction of people and animals with VR technologies. The other animals depicted at this exhibition – dogs, cats and birds – serve as the girls’ companions and appear to be part of the reality. They also depict the imminent future, in which VR headsets will turn into ubiquitous gadgets. In the future, dogs may have their own headsets instead of collars.
Subjects of some works are taken from my personal experience. I often listen to music with application SoundCloud. The interface of this program became the symbol of music source, so in my painting the girls on the rooftop are listening to music on SoundCloud. I often look for recipes on YouTube and like to watch comedy channels. In my other work, the bloggers use the phone to publish a smoothie recipe on YouTube. Naturally, the most familiar subject of my paintings are girls taking selfie for Instagram, which I use as the source of information for my visual research.
In my artworks I don’t use digital technologies. Everything is hand-drown and hand-painted from a sketch to the last brushstroke. By this I emphasise the difference between habitual reality and virtual one.
