HEAVENLY BODIES

3D ragdolls, uncanny connections and layered textures: Nicoleta Mureș creates a reflection of our technologized era in her art, and in this SWARM MAG interview goes into depth about her technique and inspirations with a selection of her recent surreal collages and animations.

Who counts sheep and who the freckles on your imaginary body before they go to sleep? Writer Zuzana Trachtová portrays how our fantasies claim and appropriate strangers' bodies for our own amusement and arousal – and vice versa. The essay is accompanied by illustrations and animations by Lucie Frýdlová.

Enter Pavla Malinová, the Moravian artist of eclectic influences and deep, saturated colors whose works remind us of ancient and non-European art, but which could only have been created in the second decade of the 21st century.

A Polish native relocated to London, a multidisciplinary artist leaning predominantly towards fashion design, Joanna Prażmo kindly gave us a piece of her mind in an exclusive interview. Her works carry a transparent, oozing, organic feel – like a freshly vacant butterfly pupa.

In her newest exploration of the sci-fi reality of the third millennium, the SCI_Arc professor Lucy McRae presents us with her take on imagining the processes of birth-giving in a not-so-distant world. Having collaborated with institutions such as NASA, MIT and TED, the Los Angeles-based Australian has all the tools necessary to performatively illustrate how science may soon radically redefine intimacy and how humans come into being.

After dealing with the oftentimes fantastical, spiritual and ephemeral topics of the preceding neo-medievalism-focused theme, we're now shifting gears to something very real, personal, non-abstract and tangible. Make room for HEAVENLY BODIES. In this article, you'll find a summary of what's to come.