Digital Daydreams: In Medias Res Online and Beyond
By Kevin Buist
Anna Luisa Petrisko, Allure of the Poppy #27 (2023)
Los Angeles projects its image to the world through film, television, and other visual media, but it’s also a machine for self-reflection, a place where image-makers and image-beholders are caught in a never ending loop. This spirit was captured in the exhibition In Medias Res: Cyber Wave Feminism: A Love Letter to Los Angeles’ Coastal Chaparral, curated by Kate Parsons and Janna Avner of FEMMEBIT and presented by Feral File. The exhibition consisted of nine artists who each produced a series of 33 digital works. It was initially presented online in 2023, and then followed up by an exhibition at the Torrance Art Museum in late 2024. Taken together, the works blend the landscape, entertainment industries, and spirit of Los Angeles into a harmonic if chaotic whole. Most works are short looping videos while others are still images. All works were made available as NFTs. Looping video is an ideal format for unpacking the layers of image-obsessed, media-rich Los Angeles. In Medias Res painted the city as a hybrid of reality and dreams, a metropolis at the edge of Western expansion, the end of one world and the beginning of another. In the works of these nine artists, Los Angeles is a city projected toward the future that loops back on itself as it meets a hazy Pacific horizon. The initial exhibition was well-documented on Feral File, but there were important peripheral activities both during and after the show that warrant documentation here.
Petra Cortright, New Landscapes 2023 #22 (2023)
In Medias Res was the topic of an NFTuesday event in Los Angeles in 2023. This gave the curators and artists the chance to expound on the work, present visuals, and connect with the broader digital art community. The event was documented on video, which remains an important document. In addition, Feral File hosted artist talks through Zoom and Spaces conversations on X in the runup and during the show, providing an invaluable record of how the artists thought about the exhibition as it came together.
In Medias Res received media coverage during the initial presentation on Feral File and later when the exhibition was expanded and exhibited at the Torrance Art Museum. Right Click Save ran an interview with four of the artists, FEMMEBIT and the New California. In that piece Petra Cortright reflected on her work in a way that captures the spirit of the whole endeavor, “The videos are based on dreams, but as a city Los Angeles is also based on dreams.” Other notable press included FAD Magazine, LA Weekly, Filmmaker Magazine, FLAUNT, and more.
The significance of In Medias Res lives on following its initial online presentation. The first and perhaps most noteworthy outcome of the digital exhibition hosted on Feral File was the reimagining of the show as an exhibition in physical space at the Torrance Art Museum. The exhibition was made possible through FEMMEBIT’s relationship with Supercollider, a Los Angeles art and tech hub. Supercollider approached the Torrance Art Museum, with whom they also had a collaborative relationship, and presented the idea of staging an expanded physical version of In Medias Res, which was timed to coincide with the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time initiative PST ART: Art & Science Collide. This opportunity allowed the curators and artists to think spatially about how the work was presented. Several artists added sculptural and installation elements to their work, such as Huntrezz Janos’ 3-D printed masks, prints by Ellie Pritts, and textiles and installation elements by Anna Luisa Petrisko. Additional artists were included in the museum exhibition who weren’t included in the original incarnation on Feral File, such as Sarah Zucker, Jennifer West, Eli Joteva, Brian Dario, Jody Zellen, Katia M Stewart, Matt Nespor, and Richelle Ellis.
The digital exhibition on Feral File included nine artists, each presenting a series of 33 works. NFTs of these works were available in sets of nine, allowing collectors to obtain one work from each featured artist. Many NFTs sales are anonymous, of course, but notable collectors included Casey Reas, co-founder of Feral File, and Chris Coleman, an advocate for digital art and the work of these artists in particular. When asked about acquisitions of their work as a part of In Medias Res, a number of the artists responded that the most meaningful collectors were the other artists in the exhibition. Each artist received a set of nine NFTs. Some were new to web3, while others were not. Either way, this collaborative exchange of work drove home the communal spirit that went into the show, which curator Kate Parsons said felt like a “group project.”
The curators, Kate Parsons and Janna Avner of FEMMEBIT, are also artists themselves. In Medias Res was an opportunity to formalize and lean into their curatorial practices. It was the first time they had assembled a group show of works that were not already complete. Instead, they gathered the artists and set them to work creating new series to reflect on the theme as it was still being developed. The artists and curators were able to be collaborative and responsive to each other in a way that’s rare, creating bodies of work that are distinct but intertwined.
Eve-Lauryn LaFountain, Waabanishimo: Miigaazh (She Dances Till Daylight: Fight) #28 (2023)
In the time since the exhibition, the artists have all continued to create more work and build on the momentum of In Medias Res. Several artists, including Petra Cortright, Huntrezz Janos, and Casey Kauffmann, are currently included in Digital Witness: Revolutions in Design, Photography, and Film, an exhibition exploring digital image manipulation at LACMA. Many factors go into selecting artists for such an exhibition, but Huntrezz Janos speculates that the success of In Medias Res likely played a role.
Themes, techniques, and processes employed by the artists in In Medias Res continue to find new expressions through each artists’ ongoing practices. A limited selection of activity includes Petra Cortright’s production of wet sunlight Paradis “pomme de terre”, commissioned by Chanel, which extends the dreamy, 3D game engine landscapes found in New Landscapes. A similar aesthetic appears in Luminex 3.0, a large-scale video projection work from 2024. JJStratford’s glitchy, analogue VHS images have since appeared at an exhibition at Existers Gallery in London, in the visuals for a number of official lyric videos for pop superstar Sabrina Carpenter, and a recent music video for LA punk band The Linda Lindas. Anna Luisa Petrisko has continued her practice as a multimedia artist and musician, with recent performances at Lincoln Center, The Bass Museum in Miami, and the Broad Museum. In addition to Digital Witness at LACMA, Casey Kauffmann presented the solo exhibition I Know That You Think That I Think at Gallery Sade in Los Angeles. Ellie Pritts recently opened a solo show at Mana Contemporary titled soft & sudden & forever, as well as exhibiting at Untitled Art Miami with Bitforms Gallery, among other showings. At Grey Area in San Francisco, Huntrezz Janos recently presented Dentaxuvia, an extended reality (XR) creation along with Antigoni Tsagkaropoulou, in addition to High Resolution, an exhibition at Transfer Gallery.
Huntrezz Janos, FeralFemme Huntrezz #27 (2023)
Feral File exists to bring digital art beyond museums and galleries and into daily life. In Medias Res did this by providing a body of work by remarkable artists which could be obtained much more easily than most physical artworks. But beyond that, this group of artists reflected on the city of Los Angeles and pushed one another in ways that rarely happen in group shows. By embodying the enigmatic spirit of Los Angeles, and building something that’s greater than the sum of its parts, In Medias Res brought art into daily life not only for its collectors, but also in the way it fostered a community of women and femme artists who make Los Angeles such a weird and wonderful place.
Timeline
January, 2023 - Kate Parsons and Janna Avner of FEMMEBIT begin planning for In Medias Res
August 15, 2023 - In Medias Res featured at NFTuesday LA event
August 17, 2023 - In Medias Res opens on Feral File
August 24 to 25 - Collecting on Feral File
October 12 to December 7, 2024 - Expanded presentation of In Medias Res at the Torrance Art Museum
November 24, 2024 to July 13, 2025 - Digital Witness: Revolutions in Design, Photography, and Film at LACMA