In this stunning series, photographer Kat Alyst — along with several other Texas-based artists and designers (credits below) — has captured an iridescent virtual world that presents an imaginative vision of our relationship with new technologies and alternate realities. Garbed in a flowing, holographic robe and ornamented with Shalottlilly’s colorful, Victorian-inspired jewelry, the model resembles an ethereal cyber goddess as she navigates the otherworldly space. The shimmering, crystalline structure surrounding her is the work of installation artist Adela Andea and is located in Houston’s Anya Tish Gallery. Together, these artists have fused their passions for dream-rich colors and surrealist, futuristic art to create a series of portraits that captivate us with their representations of alienesque beauty and a cybernetic utopia.
On her website’s Artist’s Statement, Adela Andea eloquently describes what motivates her to create the kinds of colorful, electronically-infused works like the one featured in this shoot. For her, art is an active navigation between spaces (in particular, that of “people and technology”), as well as the layers of reality:
“I like to transform the indoor spaces into installations that involve full sensory experiences for the viewers. I use all the space [that] is available to expand for the purposes of the installation. I consider all physical aspects of the building and the level of audience involvement. Where films and video games convey a futuristic approach generating virtual realities, my art is trying to deconstruct the clear, delimiting line between reality and virtual reality.” (Source)
By enmeshing the presence of the model and her corresponding design into the installation, Adela Andea’s work becomes a living environment, unveiling to us an immersive, parallel universe. Kat Alyst’s portraits do an incredible job capturing the dream-like narrative for us, which is beautiful in its representation of cybernetic worlds; just as Adela Andea strives to “vindicate the malign[ed] consequences of technology on the environment and inspire new, exciting ways to infuse technology” (Source), the world these artists have created is an alluring, corporeal exploration of our identities in cyber space.
The credits for the artists and designers involved are listed below. Be sure to check out their pages, as well as the rest of the images after the jump.
Photographer: Kat Alyst (website) (Facebook)
Installation artist: Adela Andea (website)
Model: Blue Madrigal (Instagram)
Designer: Made in Heaven by Stephen Macmillan Moser (Facebook)
Hair/Makeup: Missy Espelien Shear Style & Colorful Techniques (Facebook)
Jewelry: Shalottlilly (Facebook) (Etsy)
