In Message 9574 artist, Annamieke Engelbrecht and architect, Anna Mańka initiate a long-distance conversation between the analog medium of painting and three-dimensional digital renderings. This project is a collaboration between two artists 9574 km apart between Eindhoven, NL and Cape Town, SA. Questioning the dimensionality of both their art practices they set out to create a conversation between the digital and analog realms of their art. Corresponding in this way, they open up different dimensions of a shared abstract visual language.

Initially meeting over Instagram the correspondence between the two and their work began swiftly, as they shared images back and forth and connected digitally over a period of a few weeks during the corona lockdown. Over the few months they created a series of renders and paintings made by Anna and Annamieke respectively, where they reinterpreted each other's work using their skills of an Architecture Masters student and a fine artist. This evolved into a collection of 2D paintings and their 3D interpretations which later were the catalyst to flipping the process to create renders and then their flat explanation.

Each set represents a double oriented vision of two artists of different backgrounds and explains the continuous chain of thoughts brought by the dimensional changes.

The differences between their practices enabled the artists to push themselves and each other to think outside of the restrictions — of medium, of dimension — in which they usually work. Using their respective skills and areas of focus, they were prompted to take a different approach, spatially, in order to conceive of forms in another dimensionality.

“The most interesting conversation happening in our Message 9574 series is the one between our mediums: one that is centuries old and was used by many masters with a rich and colourful history and the other which is very contemporary and current, technology driven and continuously being updated. This dialogue between analogue and digital was the main drive when creating the series.”