The Seasons portrays a room in which a slowly evolving sculptural figure gradually transforms. In this animated loop, a variety of visual, temporal and conceptual cycles are offset and overlaid so that their movement is obscured. All is in flux but time seems to stand still, as in life.

In The Seasons, a seated woman in a pose of erotic abandon cycles clockwise on a rotating pedestal. As she cycles, she decomposes, a vine of roses surrounding her, blooming and then fading away. The room also revolves, though counter clockwise, while the animation camera pans back and forth. These movements function in counterpoint, to appear only on the edge of perception. Sound for the piece is of crumbling paper. The color scheme is white on white.

Claudia Hart is an artist and associate professor in the Department of Film, Video, New Media, and Animation at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois. Having emerged as part of a generation of 90s intermedia artists examining issues of identity and representation, she was an early adopter of virtual reality.

Here, she has used 3D animation to make media installations and projections. Later, as they were invented, other forms of VR, AR and objects were produced by computer-driven production machines.

The artist explains, “My censored work has been shown internationally in public spaces and on various public platforms. It often references classical art tropes such as the Renaissance odalisque and Hellenistic sculpture.”