RE-FIGURE-GROUND is the first exhibition of the 2019 programme for Arebyte Gallery. The exhibition focused on myth, identity and the body. The work aims to give alternative insights into the ideologies of Silicon Valley (the US high-tech hub and companies). The artists create, destroy and manipulate queer bodies in digital spaces.
The work covers many different media: projections, TV screens, audio, VR, 3D software and moving image. The first three pieces in the gallery space are VR. Two pieces include screens mounted on the wall displaying a moving image taken from the work. The other simply a beige sheet covering the windows to the outside. Each of these has a headset suspended from the ceiling in front of the space. You are invited to put them on and navigate the artwork. These were mind-bending and overwhelming. One, spawns you stood at the edge of a fantasy earthy cliff looking up to a giant glowing head/heart creature many times larger than you are. Another shows you a gallery-like space with recognisable floors and walls, but every surface is coated in blinking bright emojis, with a dizzying effect.
Continue in the gallery space and you find two TV screens mounted opposite each other, almost as if they were talking, leading you to walk between them. The collated, overlaid images flick and change colour, with a woman staring back at you from behind the screen. Another piece shows perspex suspended from the ceiling, with a projector behind it, allowing the image to shine through to the viewer. I've never seen this type of projection before and it had a bizarre effect on the video I was watching. A large screen to the left plays a video, with audio playback. The video combines real world footage and recording of movement through a digitally created space. Text covers the imagery in a bold yellow, talking about loss, fear, politics and identity. Opposite this piece, three screens play videos of business men sat at blank office tables or seat waiting for a train. The men inflate as the audio plays, telling a story of insecurity, identity, work and social expectations, to then deflate suddenly, and the formless bodies (corpses?) fall to the floor in a crumpled heap.
This exhibition was one of the best I've been to in ages. I found it extremely inspiring and eye-opening. Seeing New Media Art exhibited in a gallery made just for digital work was beautiful. It gives me hope that my digital work holds some validity and intrigue.
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