Hyperrealities: 
Olafur Eliasson, Marina Abramović, Anish Kapoor

PG (Some disturbing scenes)

Anish Kapoor’s first virtual reality work, Into Yourself, Fall (2018), takes users on a journey through the human body, experiencing the sensation of falling into yourself via the immersive headset.

In designing this custom-made virtual space, Kapoor’s use of cutting-edge technology enables him to explore materiality in alternative realms; where he draws upon his highly influential sculptural practice to evoke both tactility and transcendence inside this exhilarating journey through abstract flesh and muscle. With a soundtrack created by the artist’s son Ishan Kapoor, Into Yourself, Fall directly transports the viewer into the artist’s own visceral virtual reality, celebrating the labyrinthian, majestic inner workings of the self.

PG

In Rising, Marina Abramović taps into her pioneering performance career, creating an intimate virtual space where viewers get to meet her face-to-face.

Masterfully intersecting art with activism in communicating the terrifying effects of climate change, the artist beckons viewers from within a glass tank that is slowly filling with water from her waist to her neck, putting her own virtual body at risk in presenting the sinister consequence of rising sea levels. Viewers are encouraged to make contact with Abramović – to which the next thrilling act begins: a transportative journey into the elemental chaos of melting polar ice caps.  Here, Abramović urges viewers to reconsider their impact on the world around them, where seemingly simple decisions can mean life or death.

A meditative yet playful experience, Olafur Eliasson’s Rainbow edges people and nature even closer than ever – by bringing the magically ephemeral rainbow right in front of viewers.   

A fully interactive encounter that allows viewers to enter an immersive environment through handheld controls, Eliasson creates a majestic curtain of falling water with rainbows misting in and out of view, reacting to the viewer’s movement as they pass along the water. Viewers get to virtually drench themselves in the falling showers, ‘walk’ directly under the curtain of water, listen to its gentle trickle, and playfully phase in and out of colourful prisms of light – a delightful, multisensory treat.