Misread Signs

Showcased in a unique, off axis immersive CAVE system, 5670×1080 pixels looping animation was wrapped around the gallery walls, inviting the viewer to enter the Bosch-like fantastical paradigm.

Donned as one of her feathered creatures with antlers, Lanina performed within the projected animations, illuminated solely by her anthropomorphic sculptures – skeletal birds with human baby heads and phosphorescent eyes. In the course of the performance, we see the artist desperate, but unable to tell us something. Based on her personal experience, this piece examines the inability for someone who just went through a traumatic experience to express or even connect with how they feel.

Lanina’s images are inspired by the Surrealist and Dada approach to creating images, with the subconscious taking the lead and leaving analytical thinking behind and by embracing the nonsensical and surprising. By exploring the life of fantastic and bizarre creatures and landscapes, the artist is able to reach places unavailable to the rational self, inviting the audience to do the same.

In the projected animation, Lanina’s collaborator, composer José Martinez uses recordings of Lanina’s voice as his audio material, rendering her deeply personal text and songs beyond recognition while transforming her voice to the extreme in order to convey the urgency of expression.

The piece transcends the particulars of artist’s life experience into a universal story of perseverance and asks us to reflect on our connection to ourselves, to our past and to each other.