Alpha Manifestations

July 17 – August 28, 2021
Ines alpha: Alpha Manifestations
Curator: Samuel Arsenault-Brassard, ELLEPHANT VR artist and curator

Text by Samuel Arsenault-Brassard

The visions of Ines Alpha explore the future of makeup, fashion and identities. In these works, Ines reconsiders the concept of beauty. Her digital cosmetics do not attempt to conceal or accentuate, but rather to create a dream space where originality and exuberance reigns. She pushes for a strong digital identity that dares to shine and refuses to conform to known beauty cannons.

Within her manifestations, bodies interchangeably mix with digital matter to the point of confusion. Facial features become tendrils, gills or vivacious fins. Their materiality shifts between that of crystals, water, jelly, scales and skin. The most delicate and complex sea creatures are integrated into the human body, as a living ornament.

In these experiences, the spectators become the vessels, the canvas of an otherworldly dream universe. These moments, these “looks” insinuate an entire fictional world, a mystical mythology of their own. The body becomes part of a complex corral, an assembly of living jewelry, merging the self to the post-physical. These surreal sights remind of the importance of “affective computing”, the need to integrate human emotions and human dreams in the digital futures we are creating.