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[Premiere] A Digital Artist Puts a Contemporary Twist on an Ancient Greek Myth

Dario Alva a.k.a cavecanems reflects on violence in the media through this disorienting cybernetic image series.
Images courtesy of FELT Zine

Every Saturday, The Creators Project premieres a new issue from net art platform and artist collective, FELT Zine.

Fixed with a spine chilling half smile, a woman rendered like a Final Fantasy character stares at the viewer from behind the screen of an iPad in the 15th issue of FELT Zine. This mysterious figure is the subject of a new series of images by Dario Alva a.k.a cavecanems, the digital artist and animator responsible for those odd vignettes of video game characters kissing each other. This week, FELT decided to welcome in the new year with one of Alva’s more disorienting cybernated scenes in which he uses a combination of Greek Mythology and cyborg imagery to reflect on the overwhelming amount of violence that now floods mainstream media.

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In addition to the creepy iPad lady, Alva shows the side profile of a stiff metallic skeleton that’s been dressed up in a black turtleneck and captain’s hat. In another image, a scaly red creature with a horn on top of its head is placed in the right hand corner and looks as though it is tearing into the fabric of the canvas itself.

The series references the three Moirai, typically depicted as gynoid white robed figures that serve to symbolize the three incarnations of destiny in Greek mythology. The Moirai are in charge of controlling the “thread of life” of every mortal, which Alva reinterprets as a metal chain in his image series. Alva inserts toy soldiers, broken glass, and these abstract metallic objects that warp our perspective and make the whole scene feel chaotic. He says the issue’s aesthetic was inspired by the Wolfenstein series, a first person shooter franchise that been around since the early 80s.

You can check out more of Dario Alva’s work on his Instagram, and click here for more FELT Zine.

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