Fine Art graduate has work commissioned for FACT Liverpool

Kerolaina (Laina) Linkevica has recently had her selected to be digitally exhibited as part of FACT Together.

Laina (BA Fine Art, 2020) applied to a Fact Together Open Call advertised by FACT, and was selected to feature a piece of digital artwork on the theme of ‘Radical Ancestry’. Laina’s work for this project consists of a set of virtual ritual spaces dedicated to ‘Primordia’ The Goddess.

Primordia (2022) is an immersive online exhibition that invites you to explore three worlds inspired by Laina’s research into Goddess worship, and Laina’s own personal experiences of ancestral belief systems passed through the maternal line of her Latvian ancestors and family.

Behind the scenes Primordia (2022)
Behind the scences of Primordia (2022)

Primordia (2022) is an immersive online exhibition that invites you to explore three worlds inspired by Laina’s research into Goddess worship, and Laina’s own personal experiences of ancestral belief systems passed through the maternal line of her Latvian ancestors and family.

Laina was born in Daugavpils, Latvia and migrated to the UK at ten years old. Her childhood was deeply rooted in the forest, animism, folk magic and a multiverse of computer games, which informs my multi-disciplinary practice in the UK today. Through this diverse childhood, Laina has always experienced the boundaries between mediums and realities as porous and interwoven.

The idea behind Laina’s proposal was to bring the haptic nature of ceramics praxis and embodied performance into a formative relationship with the cyberspacial, and immersive technology.

World 1 Primordia (2022)
Preview of World 1

In speaking of her inspiration behind Primordia (2022), Laina has said:

“The basis of my work for FACT grew from research and exploration of artefacts from Goddess-centred societies and Latvian magical histories/ knowledge that was passed down to me through the matrilineal line of my Latvian ancestors.  

Through interdisciplinary play with ceramics and digital technologies I ended up developing a game environment ‘Primordia’ through which these ideas and artefacts could be accessed and explored in a poetic manner.”

FACT is the UK's leading organisation for the support and exhibition of art and film that embraces new technology and explores digital culture. FACT believe in enriching lives and shaping the future through film, art and creative technology.

Laina’s artwork will feature as part of ‘FACT Together’, an annual, online commissioning scheme set up to support early-career, northern artists. Each round, a selection of artists and artist groups are awarded individual grants plus 3 months of support to create new, digital work from home.

Congratulations on this fantastic digital exhibition, Laina!

Laina would also like to thank the wonderful artists and organisations she collaborated with as part of this commission:

Unity Developer: Ben Hall 

Sound Design: Jordan Edge

Motion Capture: Proto Gateshead 

View the Primordia (2022) digital commission here (A Chrome browser is recommended)

See the behind-the-scenes creative process