ANIKA MEIER

ARTIST

"I love TALE AS OLD AS TIME because it is a cross between 1960s horror-film / camp and Edvard Munch‘s sober message." – Claudia Hart, Artist
"I wish I could tell the girls in these works that it’ll all be okay, but I don’t want to lie to them." – Kevin Abosch, Artist "A tale of mirrors—technology as an unflinching reflection of human fears, flaws, and dreams—in which what we see tells as much as what we don't, can't, or won't." – Sasha Stiles, Artist
"TALE AS OLD AS TIME is a necessary exploration of the hidden horrors of girlhood, where loveliness provides false security. Anika has brought forth the unheimlich, adding a hint of humor, a pinch of play, and a dose of damaged desire." – Ana Maria Caballero, Artist
"The nostalgia of girlhood collides with the grotesque horror of The Scream. The viewer, as voyeur, transgresses upon these intimate moments of rage, of shame, of frustration. Her nubile body is stiffening; she’s screaming in the corner, but nobody is listening. Instead, we just watch... washing away any worries in the warm, sunny patina of vintage Americana. Things are so different now. We say, 'Let them eat cake.' We say, 'Girls will be girls.' We say…" – Natalie Stone, GM of CryptoPunks
"Like a punch in the face, Anika has combined 1960s pulp fiction illustration with the panic of the Derridean secret self. A series of AI-mediated cognitive shocks from the depths of western collective memory. Madness in the female image." – James Bloom (Crashblossom), Artist
"There is so much insidious horror in girlhood. TALE AS OLD AS TIME captures this beautifully in a way that is both absurd and completely accurate. It’s the same feeling that keeps me too scared to open the diaries from my youth." – Margaret Murphy, Artist
"There is something profoundly familiar and, at the same time, uncanny in the series TALE AS OLD AS TIME. We are confronted with the cliche image of the terrified girl; we can almost hear the scream coming from all the horror movies we grew up watching. But the multiple reflections that echo the horror in different ways point to a primal, diffuse sense of despair, not linked to a specific source. We ask ourselves: Is that the image of the fear of oneself? Fear of the condition of being a woman? Fear of growing up? Or the image of more pure horror?" – Kika Nicolela, Artist and Curator, objkt.com
"The mirror, the girl, the scream... reflections, future, pain... knowledge, time, eternity..." – Susanne Päch, Foundation Herbert W. Franke 
"With TALE AS OLD AS TIME, Anika’s recontextualization of vintage horror aesthetics to interrogate our preconceived notions of hysteria and identity is instantly impactful. These solitary screams by young women point to an internal frustration with the world and a truly horrifying, all-encompassing oppression." – Mark Sabb, Artist, Felt Zine

ANIKA MEIER | TALE AS OLD AS TIME

<a href="https://opensea.io/collection/lost-futures-by-anika-meier">View on OpenSea. </a> "Leave your eyes behind. You will see the invisible. You will feel infinity. You will no longer count hours. No more measuring. There is nothing to consider. There is nothing to decide. There's nothing left to do. It was a beautiful day today."
– Herbert W. Franke, ZONE ZERO, 1972
I am late to the Tribute to Herbert W. Franke. One year too late. Herbert (1927–2022) was a pivotal figure in bridging the gap between art and science. He was a scientist, author of science fiction, curator, mathematician, physicist, and speleologist. We met in early 2022 through a joint friend, museum director Alfred Weidinger. After returning from my visit to Munich, I went back to Herbert’s writing. He has been called "the most prominent German science fiction writer" by Die Zeit and a "great storyteller" by the FAZ. I agree. I started reading his novels again. ZONE ZERO from 1972 was the first one that came to mind.
"Leave what burdens you behind. A cloud absorbs you. A bowl of warmth. A handful of sympathy. A touch of oblivion. There is no past and no future…"
Words like these stuck with me, as did the images my mind created after reading the story for the first time. Two civilizations coexist independently. One over ground, one underground. A group travels to ZONE ZERO to learn more about the other civilization’s existence and finds a highly constructed environment beneath the sea surface. They find humans, mutants, and cyborgs.
AI can turn writing into the images a writer has in their mind when writing words. I have always wished this were possible. AI makes it possible. I can only speculate about the images Herbert had in his mind when he wrote ZONE ZERO. For me, this book was the point of departure for imagining a world in which humans don’t change locations anymore but live in a projection that is as good as reality. In Herbert’s words:
"If there is access to all information, changes in location are unnecessary. The projections are as good as the reality."

ANIKA MEIER | LOST FUTURES

"I am a writer. As students, we ran the first print peer-reviewed magazine for the history of art. It later turned into a blog. We won prizes.
Social media killed art criticism.
Readers mainly respond to headlines and quotes on social media. At best, it‘s a lively exchange of thoughts, experiences, knowledge, and opinions.
In 2022, I started tweeting thoughts and questions that, in a different world, I would have turned more often into texts.
As a writer would do, I now present these thoughts and questions, written by hand on a beautiful piece of paper.
The first 5 editions of "tweets from twitter" are the tweets from myself that got the most responses and, at the same time, are a document of a moment in history: the age of Post-NFTism.
Signed. Anika Meier
P.S. Thank you for the lively discussions on Twitter."<quillbot-extension-portal></quillbot-extension-portal>

ANIKA MEIER | TWEETS FROM TWITTER

View on <a href="https://opensea.io/collection/a-jpeg-has-an-aura">OpenSea.</a>
Does a JPEG have an aura? A JPEG has an aura. Or what would Walter Benjamin say?
Imagine having an NFT in your wallet that confirms that all of your other NFTs have an aura.
This is an OPEN EDITION, meaning there is no closing date.
<meta charset="utf-8">ABOUT THE NFT Contract address: <a href="https://etherscan.io/address/0x6742a1c09d6b670952c41ef10d8ea27eb72fc841">0x6742a1c09d6b670952c41ef10d8ea27eb72fc841</a> Blockchain: Ethereum Token standard: ERC-721 Metadata: Frozen and decentralized

A JPEG HAS AN AURA

ANIKA MEIER | THIS IS ME TRYING

What would Marshall McLuhan write today? Very likely text messages. The global village is now largely connected via messenger apps and social media. Life is closeness to strangers and friends, changing every second. Thoughts and feelings are shared as they are thought and lived. 

AN EXHIBITION OF MIXED MESSAGES

THE TEXT IS THE MESSAGE | GALLERY

EXHIBITION

TALE AS OLD AS TIME by Anika Meier is a portrait of the inner world of girlhood. The young women are trapped with feelings that might never pass: fear, bewilderment, and vulnerability. The images created with AI evoke tropes of the Dead Girl (Alice Bolin), the Sad Girl Theory (Audrey Wollen), and the female gaze. It could be stills from 1970s horror movies, scenes taken from Laura Palmer’s red room, or a window into the dreamy, pastel-tinted safe space for girls created by Petra Collins. These coming-of-age stories trigger instantaneous unease while reflecting the topic of authentic female self-expression with dramatic irony. Or, with the words of Taylor Swift: "A man is allowed to react. A woman can only overreact."

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ANIKA MEIER

TALE AS OLD AS TIME #23

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EXHIBITION