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Conceptual Artist Anya Anti discusses her art series shining a light on climate change @anya_anti_art
In a project that spanned 3 years from its inception to completion, New York based conceptual artist Anya Anti created a series of artworks to bring awareness to the current dire situation of climate change, entitled 2.5 Seconds. Inspired by the beauty, and to an extent, the untouched landscape of Iceland, Anya set out to capture the stunning locations, juxtaposed by the nightmarish environmental crisis she conveys in each image, through the use of subjects, costume, props, photography and photoshop. Anya considered the damage human impact has caused on our beautiful planet in the short amount of time in which we have inhabited it. This notion led her to the title 2.5 Seconds. “It comes from the idea that planet earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old and mankind is about 140 thousand years old, so if you imagine and compress the earth's existence into 24 hours, and do the math, humanity has been on this planet for 2.5 seconds.” After her first visit to the stunning Nordic island nation of Iceland, Anya says she realized the fragility of nature and felt a strong urge to protect it. The idea of the beauty she had witnessed not being around long enough for future generations to experience, had a huge impact on her. She says, “I decided first of all to make changes to my lifestyle, live more sustainably, simple things like not buying water in plastic bottles - Try to minimize your footprint as much as you can. And then I decided it's time to use my work, my voice as a photographer, to make a difference.” Subsequent visits to Iceland 8 M. CITIZEN MAGAZINE | ISSUE 04
WORDS BY BEC DOYLE
served as research and location scouting to plan the epic undertaking of the 9 piece art series. Bringing the series to life was not short of challenges. Anya says, “I spent the first year coming up with the concept. Doing research and sketches. Then I was trying to raise money on kickstarter for the project. I failed, which is ok. I raised 40% of what I was hoping to raise, so it was all refunded back to the people.Then I was able to find sponsors.” With leading image and electronics companies; ChromaLuxe, B&H and Outex stepping up to the plate, Anya was able to make her vision a reality. “It took a few months to prepare for the trip, book everything, and find the model. Make all the costumes and all the props.” In the Summer of 2019 the small team which consisted of Anya, her husband and model Anna Psy, spent 10 days in Iceland to capture all the images. And, after what she describes as the busiest year of her life, when the pandemic hit Anya was able to slow down, affording her the necessary time needed to thoughtfully and carefully complete the series. “Every single image has its own behind the scenes video, I was able to do screen capture of me editing and do time speed edits for those behind the scenes videos.” Observing each piece, I am personally overwhelmed with emotions. The power of these images is undeniable. They tell the story of a future without the basic freedoms we are lucky to have been blessed with on our planet. Freedoms that some may take for granted; Fresh air, Clean water, a safe place
