Stacie Ant’s character-driven work operates as a critique and rejection of the male gaze, enhanced by a modern culture of digital immersion. She harnesses the very digital tools offered in a technologically-dependent world as a means of empowering female identity and sexuality. Often humorous, Ant’s work offers a way of looking at a fast-paced digital realm through a lens of irony and satire.
Stacie's work spreads within several mediums; 3D animation, Augmented reality, and metaverse projects. In recent years, she collaborated with numerous fashion brands including Adidas, Nike, and Adrianna Hot Couture. Her personal work is exhibited internationally, including at Miami Art Basel, Kraftwerk Berlin, Milan Fashion Week, and South by SouthWest.
#Retouched explores the disparate meanings of touch and the act of something being retouched. Touching a person’s body can be comforting, empathetic and a form of connection; however, it can also be unwelcoming, forceful, and demeaning. Retouching is a technique that makes alterations to an image, eliminating an imperfection and implying that an improvement has been made. We have the ability to change ourselves and our environments in the physical and digital spaces, but who are we ameliorating for? Using AI powered or synthetic intelligence to use different techniques such as clone stamping, zoom quilting, liquifying, photo compositing, and digital matte painting, the artworks use a hybridization of recognizable signs, pop culture symbols, and androgynous figures that shift between the familiar and uncanny, the primordial and the
futurist, nostalgia and hope.
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#Retouched was organized in partnership with CADAF.