GLOR1A & Kerolaina Linkeviča

10 Jun-27 Aug 2023

Credit: Kerolaina Linkeviča, Primordia (2022)

Overview

FACT Together 2021 Artists-in-Residence GLOR1A and Kerolaina Linkeviča bring elements of their digital worlds to life in the physical gallery space. They take a shared interest in ancient belief systems as a starting point to imagine new worlds, free from widely established narratives that often govern our thinking. By creating environments that encourage personal reflection and transformation, they offer the space to imagine more inclusive and fluid ways of considering our sense of belonging. 

Primordia (2022) is an immersive online work that invites you into three worlds inspired by Kerolaina’s research into Goddess/Goddexx worship, and their personal experiences of ancestral belief systems passed through the maternal line of their Latvian ancestors and family. These worlds offer an exploration into femme-focussed prehistoric ancestries, and consider how alternative ways of being can allow for the formation of new worlds in collaboration with beyond-human entities. Kerolaina’s installation contains elements from the Primordia worlds, including ceramic sigils and fluid textile works, an artform practised throughout generations of their family.  

SWARM (2022), built by GLOR1A and games designer alpha_rats, is a set in the near future where humans have the chance to develop a new civilisation. To do so, they must challenge preconceptions of what is ‘alien’, free themselves from binary thinking and build a universal language to understand each other. Upon entering the Orun Rere universe, players are invited to consider how they view their current self, and  to explore who they have the potential to become. These subconscious thoughts are made visible in the creation of a new avatar who encourages release through self expression. A star constellation accessible at the end of the gameplay houses reports of everyone who has undergone this transformation, acting as a point of reflection.

Both presentations are on display in FACT's first-floor gallery, alongside the works of Chila Kumari Singh Burman.