Stacie Ant is a Russian-Canadian artist and curator creating digital universes that immerse us in altered realities. Through her idiosyncratic characters and intricate environments, she explores identity, gender, female sexuality and the excesses of a visually overloaded society.
Humour and ridicule are used as tools to examine how social boundaries and behavioural norms are shifting.
Q > Tell us about your most unconventional project (even if it did not materialise)
A > Performance art. I have a love/hate relationship with performance art in general as a part of me thinks that it is the most pretentious form of art and yet it can be so great at the same time. In 2017 I was invited to participate in an art festival in Hamilton (Canada), during which my friends and I dressed up as mimes and performed an hour long silent play about medieval jousting to a sped up Enya album with all projected, 3D scenery. It was great fun and I cannot believe that we actually went through with it considering how much work it took.
Q > What’s the most satisfying part of the creative process (and why)?
A > Seeing your ideas come to life. One of the main reasons I choose to work in the 3D medium is because , to me, it is the one tool which allows you to realise ideas that closely resemble their original imagined form. You have control over everything – the way the actors look, the lighting, the camera angles — I cannot think of a medium that will allow you to replicate your imagination with such accuracy. So seeing the project come to “life” in post production is when you can say “Oh wow that actually worked, who would have thought” and it makes me feel good about the many hours I spent in front of my computer making it.
Q > Surprising contradictions — tell us about things that conflict you and inspire you at the same time.
A > Algorithms. Is instagram a powerful tool for artists to bypass traditional galleries and showcase their work to the world or is it an evil system that decides what art is popular and what doesn’t deserve to be seen? Is the basic programming behind Instagram algorithms the new global curator?
Q > From disruptive poetry, to rejection of norms — how do you shape your way of life?
A > I get up and put my pants on one leg at a time. But sometimes, when in a hurry, I sit back and put both legs on at the same time, it’s quite simple, really.
Q > Your greatest source of satisfaction?
A > Sneaking out of the house to get a cheap cappuccino from one of those busted 1 euro coffee machines at a späti (convenience store) and eating a chocolate croissant on a park bench by myself.
Q > What assumption(s) do people tend to make about you?
A > Online: that I am a heterosexual man who creates sexualised female figures in all his works; IRL: I’m not sure what people think of me in person, perhaps that I am a bubbly polite Canadian but that of course fades when they get to know me more.
Q > Opening conversations around taboos — where would you start? Which topics should we be discussing more?
A > Global warming. Environmental concerns vs first world social inconveniences.
Q > Fake and Real happiness — do you question social conventions that tell you what should make you happy?
A > Always. Every decade there is a new “happiness” formula that you just have to follow because apparently this time they finally got it right, but these formulas are social constructs designed to make you spend money.
