Anita Fontaine’s radical creations intersect art, fashion, advertising and technology.
Celebrated as an artist, director and creative director, her work straddles virtual dimensions that verge on beauty and experimentation. Her future forward vision and hyper real aesthetic have evolved into a recognized brand, making her a favorite collaborator of Louis Vuitton, Diesel, MAC Cosmetics, Vice and Google. Hailing from Australia, Anita played in goth hop bands creating game art hacks while studying photography, film and video game design. Anita relocated to Canada in 2002 to become an artist in residence at the pioneering Banff New Media Institute, where she created digital art experiments for 3 years inside a magic mountain national park. She now lives and works in Amsterdam.
Fontaine's seminal machinima The Fontaines #2: Daughter and The Fontaines #2: Dad are currently on display in the GLITCH section of GAME VIDEO/ART. A SURVEY.
The video interview was produced by the students of IULM's Master's Program in Arts, Markets, and Cultural Heritage. Editing and Subtitles by Mariacristina Maffeo. (see more INTERVIEWS here)
Below is another seminal work by Anita Fontaine, CUTEXDoom II (2008) created with Mike Pelletier, a game-modification and installation which hijacks the brutally violent first-person shooter Unreal Tournament 3 to create a luscious and surreal gaming experience. As the artists explain:
"CuteXDoom II continues to explore the themes of obsession and fanatical adherence to ideologies, but is a stand-alone narrative with a new mission. In the explanatory animation that starts the game, Sally Sanrio wakes up from her paroxysm to find herself in a familiar, yet changed, environment. Upon drinking a liquid nearby, she notices that the cute environment she once sought to enter is becoming increasingly strange and distorted. She realises that she has been poisoned. Once sweet characters now appear malevolent, predatory; the landscape becomes surreal and sinister, graphic forms are elegant, and almost cruel. In this altered state of perception she realises that the cult of CuteXDoom was not what she thought it would be, and that she must fight the effects of the poison to find the antidote and escape."
Anita Fontaine and Mike Pelletier, CuteXDoom II, HD video projection, UT game- mod, Stereo, Wallpaper, Customized joypad, prints, plexi-glass sculpture, 2008
