“Made in Ancient Greece” is a series of freestanding video sculptures that visually embody the unlikely juxtaposition of form and function in vessels.
From their historical use by early civilizations to modern adaptations, vessels combine visual elements with utilization. Through varying shape or size to adorning images recording harvests or signifying ownership, vases have traditionally melded design by purpose with relaying visual information.
Anna Frants’ “Made in Ancient Greece Series” plays with vessels as subject matter, acknowledging and finding personality in plaster bodies. Just as distinguishing characteristics of a vessel are attributed to and provide insight into the people who made that style vase to meet their purpose – Frants’ vessels are a marriage of a traditional medium with moving images of Hollywood that defined the Soviet cinema of Stalin era.
Footage was shot in 1928-1936 by young cameraman Vyacheslav Alekseevich Burgov who later became legend of Russian sound technology.