Introduction to The Wild Within
The Wild Within is a series of digital artworks that bring new life into abandoned buildings from a bygone era.
Based on real-world physical spaces, an animated rebirth into a digital realm has been created.
Ryan Koopmans & his partner Alice Wexell visited different locations around the world over several years, exploring ruins and photographing structures that have undergone dramatic transition.
Upon returning, they digitally introduced vegetation, modified the structure and lighting, and animated the scenes with the intention of reviving the empty spaces, essentially bringing life back into the rooms.
The results are a surreal collision between the past and future, natural and manmade, physical and digital, and the real and imaginary.
The aim of the artwork is to create a sense of surreal tranquility whilst referencing the themes of architectural history, urban exploration, and the resurgence of nature.
Many of the buildings depicted in The Wild Within have been demolished in recent years, further emphasizing the theme of time passing in the cycle of growth and decay.
The first artwork of The Wild Within was released on March 24, 2021. Since then the work has been displayed in 9 different countries, exhibited and auctioned at Sotheby's in Paris, France, and acquired by some of the World's premier collectors of digital art.
Historical Overview
During the Soviet Union, the Georgian town of Tskaltubo was a popular health destination famed for its therapeutic water and luxurious sanatoriums.
Between the 1940’s to 1980’s thousands of people visited each year, including Stalin and his high-ranking officials from Moscow.
The town was renowned for its therapeutic radon-carbonate mineral spring water believed to treat an array of ailments.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, the buildings were deserted and fell into disrepair. Floors were ripped up for firewood, and the metal salvaged as scrap.
Since the early 90's, the buildings have been slowly dismantled and stripped of their valuable materials, leaving empty shells of what were once grandiose classical structures.
Regional Conflict
In 1992 a war in nearby Abkhazia broke out.
Displaced Georgians fled from the conflict and were given temporary shelter in Tskaltubo's unoccupied buildings.
Thirty years later, some families remain living in these architectural remains of a Soviet past.
Chapter 2. Everlasting 2022
Chapter 3. Symphony 2023