Spike Island presents We are only partly real, a newly commissioned virtual exhibition by artists Steve Dutton and Michelle Marie Forrest.
Produced in collaboration with digital artist and researcher Stephen Gray, the commission seeks to explore the potential of Virtual Reality not only as a platform to exhibit art, but also as an artistic medium in itself.
Split into four interconnected zones, the virtual exhibition brings together real-world painting, drawing, sculpture and moving image; digital adaptations of real-world artworks; and new Virtual Reality artworks made specifically for this context. The result is a hybrid exhibition that uses Virtual Reality as a mechanism to explore artistic practice.
Inspired by their interest in the complexities of communication, Dutton and Forrest work with grids, data, text and colour, often embedding multiple references as cyphers within their work, to play with viewer’s feelings and memories. The exhibition draws upon various filmic references – including Victor Fleming’s The Wizard of Oz, David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, and Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar – using fantasy and surrealism as a means to investigate language and other forms of communication.
The notion of time is central to the commission, which features both a ‘daytime’ and ‘night-time’ version of the exhibition. Upon certain triggers, day turns into night, and viewers enter a dream-like state, where reality fades and imagination takes hold. This dual exhibition invites viewers to question their perception of reality, while acknowledging the potentials and pitfalls of Virtual Reality as a creative platform for both making and exhibiting art.
The virtual exhibition can be experienced online through a web browser or downloaded as a computer game. There is also a version of the exhibition that is accompanied by an audio guide narrated by the artists, sharing additional insight and context around individual artworks.
The virtual commission is a pilot project by Spike Island and researcher Stephen Gray, aiming to create new and accessible virtual art spaces. The project is funded by the University of Bristol’s AHRC Impact Acceleration Award, and curated by Spike Island’s Assistant Curator: Artist Development and Engagement, Saphia Abrahamovitch-Venner.
Play instructions:
Game will take a few minutes to load, especially the first time you play. While you wait, familiarise yourself with the controls:
- When the game has loaded, press the blue ‘maximise button’ in the lower right of the game window to begin play
- Then click anywhere in the game window to start playing
- Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move, and use the mouse to look around
- You can also connect a controller to your PC for easier navigation
- To exit the game press your ‘Escape’ key
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council under the Research Impact Accelerations scheme, 2024. A partnership with Bristol’s Spike Island arts space.