''Enter Through the Headset'' will feature VR works by szIrTes, skullmappIng (anToon Verbeeck & FIlIp sTerckx) and maTTeo zamagnI. The exhibition highlights the blurred boundaries between real and virtual experiences.
The shows runs alongside Ben Tricklebank’s first UK solo show, Endec, and presents new virtual worlds by Iain Nicholls & Tom Szirtes, Matteo Zamagni, and Skullmapping, the artistic duo Antoon Verbeeck and Filip Sterckx.
Site specific work, VEIL, created as a collaboration between Iain Nicholls and Tom Szirtes explores the concepts of recursion, alternate realities and space referencing the works of Diego Velazquez, Casper David Fredrick, Hans Holbein and early pioneers of film. Skullmapping presents The Styx a multi-sensory journey into the underworld inspired by the Greek myth of the river Styx. Matteo Zamagni mesmerizes the viewer with powerful geometrical and psychedelic patterns through his work, Nature Abstraction, which maps both biological forms and cosmic shapes.
The interactive artworks are accessible via three VR headsets on the first floor of the gallery. Matteo Zamagni’s work will be both featured in the physical space of the gallery and Gazell.io, the online artist residency program established last year. This parallel programming is the first one of its kind for the gallery.
''The intention of this ‘show within a show’ is to continue exploring non-traditional mediums in art, helping artists work within this field by creating a sustainable exposure and nurturing the cross-over between technology and art – a growing area of interest for the gallery over the past two years,” says Mila Askarova, Director of Gazelli Art House.''
The works will be accompanied by digital certificates of authenticity, powered by Verisart, a new platform to certify and verify artworks using blockchain technology.
Verisart, is the first ever platform for certifying and verifying artworks and collectible’s on the world’s most secure, decentralized register, enables artists to create, share and display certificates of authenticity.
Accompanying the world of the VR artists, Ben Tricklebank's latest installation set within the gallery's ground floor, themes of reaction and distortion are addressed through his audience’s interaction with a bright, white reflecting pool. Filled with opaque milky substance, the pool serves as a liquid canvas, which both responds to and is manipulated by the viewer.
British born Ben Tricklebank, based in Los Angeles, is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice includes film, photography and installation, with a focus on finding innovative ways to engage with audiences.
Both exhibitions will run until 25th June, 2016. Check out more works at Gazelli here.
