Get Lost in a Neo-Neoclassical Visual Journey

New York-based visual artist Katie Torn has filled the fifteenth room of web-based art gallery Panther Modern with eye-catching fluid compositions. Working within the file-based exhibition space, she generated a series of shiny still-life-inspired visuals that fuze organic elements, flexible and distorted rendered character, plants, and art history classics.

“I was thinking a lot about neoclassical odalisques—marble statues of female figures twisted in unnatural positions displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art or in the Louvre,” Torn tells The Creators Project. “My aim was to display a figure in a ridiculous pose but one that formally ties the installation together with a sweeping gesture,” she says, using her uncanny signature aesthetic to questions the boundaries of computer-generated works showcased within virtual architecture.

Once again, the LaTurbo Avedon-curated browser-based art space showcases a strong creative potential that provides digital artists with an inspiring platform to generate site-specific digital artworks. “My first step was deciding how to intersect the human body with the architecture,” Torn explains of how she took advantage of the freedom offered by the modulable space architecture. “The installation grew from creating organic pathways that connected the lower main gallery with the small upper gallery that has several pillars. Paint FXs of leaves and flowers became secondary gestures for connecting the two spaces—leading one up from the large figure that starts on the main floor to the hand sculptures that protrude from the columns,” she adds.

Thus, Torn juggles with a combination of tools—including Photoshop, Maya 3D animation, a bunch of modeling softwares and even a liquid simulator called Real Flow—allowing her to embrace the whole space despite the shape and scale specificities. “The most challenging aspect was figuring out how to convey the right scale for the project. I wanted the installation to have a monumental feeling to it. I had to experiment with several lens sizes and angels before I achieved the right effect,” she concludes.

Click here to explore Room 15. For more of Katie Torn’s work, click here.

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