Multiple Reality

Compressing real space and time into simultaneous online dimensions enables us to be in all places and times without actually being in them. On the one hand, there is the slow linear world, and on the other—an infinite, networked, constantly updated world, assimilated into the boundaries of our body and consciousness. Natasha Kuznetsova’s paintings emphasize the way in which the actual reality becomes a backdrop for infinite life in virtual reality. The traffic arteries and public spaces depicted in her works simulate the old world, and at the same time—the effects of the digital landscape. In the multiple reality represented in the exhibition, intimate-virtual enclaves are formed, blurring dichotomous distinctions between private and public time and space. The geographical sphere is replaced by an intimate, flattened screen interface, one screen for every viewer. A three-dimensional reality in which near and far, early and late are differentiated, is compressed into two-dimensional extensions reflecting reality. Distance is replaced by speed, and events draw closer instantly and tangibly, generating a hyperreality, while physical proximity is broken, interpersonal encounters cease, contact is lost, and all is flattened.