Quite often, animated GIF art, is displayed online which in essence sounds about right, considering the type of art it is, if not, on television or large projection screens.
Wish You Were here by Quentin Jones
But art collective15Folds, believes it’s quite the opposite, especially for ‘Everything All At Once’, their recent London exhibition (ended May 29) which allowed visitors to view artworks via a custom-designed app on a smart phone or tablet using augmented reality, which is a first in using this kind of technology in a gallery setting.
Located in the Lyst Space in east London’s Hoxton Square, the gallery space was filled with large format QR codes.
Camouflage by Sarah Ivanyi
Visitors then held their smart phones or tablets up to the codes, having downloaded a custom-made app designed by developers Plague Projects, in order to see the gifs by 20 contemporary artists hover in front of the walls on their screens, as seen above.
GIF by Natalia Stuyk
A lot of the the artworks in the exhibition included China Will Save the World With a Female Army by Kim Asendorfs, which features female soldiers’ faces being flipped upside-down ‘to prevent agents from falling in love’, Wish You Were here by Quentin Jones features images of travel destinations + scantily clad women flashing behind the painted words ‘wish you were here’ + artwork by Natalia Stuyk, where primary colours organize themselves around a moving black line (above).
The Eye by Matthew Stone + Joe Currie
The collective wanted to create an offline experience that was more sympathetic to their original context, but without the distraction of surrounding websites, open web browser tabs, incoming emails + push notifications, which can be very annoying + discouraging to the viewer to truly appreciate the art.
Run by Peter Valkanoff
15Folds was frustrated by other presentations of animated gifs, which are often converted into MOV files + played on television screens hung like paintings.
China Will Save the World With a Female Army by Kim Asendorfs
15Folds.com, founded by Margot Bowman, Jolyon Varley and Sean Frank as an ongoing online project in which leading creatives are invited to make original GIF art in response to a given theme.
Seasons by Tyler Spangler
‘An in real life (IRL) exhibition of gifs in a physical space gives an opportunity for the work to be appreciated for what it is rather than as a commodity to be reflagged,’ said 15Folds. ‘The use of augmented reality restores a sense of wonder in the way these works are reviewed.’
Wouldn’t it be interesting to experience art this way but outdoors? Maybe P.S.1 should consider it for it’s ‘Warm-up’?
(via dezeen)
