Li Zhu
All Beings Are Suffering
June 11 - June 24 2021
Introduced by Matteo Bittanti
vral.org
All Beings Are Suffering is part of Human Dust, an ongoing project that comprises self-generating scenes of human-like intelligence created by Li Zhu with Unity 3D. These simulated creatures reproduce themselves endlessly, floating in the air and multiplying at a frantic pace. As the artist says, “We don’t know whether such a human-like AI would have consciousness, but their presence will definitely confuse real humans’ consciousness. At least, because I heavily rely on computers to create my artwork, my own consciousness seems to be constantly washed away by algorithms. In a data flood, ‘real’ meanings that may exist in my art quickly decompose. Reality disappears; only a torrent of tumbling image data remains.”
Li Zhu is a Chinese-Canadian artist and scholar who uses new technologies such as video games, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and social media to create new ways of understanding reality. All Beings Are Suffering is part of an ongoing series titled Human Dust. Li Zhu has an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She received a B.A. in Visual And Intermedia Arts from the University of Quebec in Montreal, Canada. She studied at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Paris and McGill University. Her work has been exhibited in China, France, Canada, and the United States. Recent exhibitions include I Think (solo, 2017) in Guangzhou, China, ON AURA (group, 2021) in Montreal, and Backyard Stories (group, 2020) in Chicago. She is currently working and living in Chicago.
Becoming a Legend
Gweni Llwyd and Owen Davies
May 28 - June 10 2021
Introduced by Luca Miranda
vral.org
The practice of customizing characters and assets in video games has a long tradition within vernacular as well as avant-garde subcultures. In fact, artists have often pursued this route to create their artworks. Few, however, reach the meta playful levels of Becoming a Legend which introduces the imperious character of Da Man!, a post-human, virtual übermensch, a diabolical, green-haired “divin codino”. Created with/in the popular video game Pro Evolution Soccer, Da Man! embodies the notion of toxic masculinity and the neoliberalist mantra of self-optimization.
Gweni Llwyd (she/her) is a Welsh artist based in Cardiff. Her practice reflects on a human condition caught between tactile physicality and intangible digital realms. Predominantly working in video, 3D animation, and installation, Gweni creates abstracted rhythms and narratives, mirroring the often chaotic, disjointed nature of the contemporary world by collecting, modifying and rearranging the most disparate sources and materials, including first hand and found footage, game engines and concrete artifacts. She is also co-founder of RAT TRAP, a collective of artists and musicians that find their own routes through the maze of protocols and ways of doing things.
Owen Davies (he/him) is a Welsh filmmaker based in Cardiff. Mainly working in live-action narrative film, his work revolves around the limits of human connection and interaction. Owen’s upcoming short film Arwel’s House, funded by Ffilm Cymru and the BBC, is shooting in July and will air on BBC4 in the UK later this year. The film follows the mother of a dead YouTube star as she gives tours of his childhood home in South Wales to fans from around the world. In 2018, he was shortlisted for the Armani Laboratorio where judge David Kajganich (Suspiria, The Terror) described his script Money Now as “just fantastic — a kind of moral emergency for the modern age that left me both queasy and totally fascinated.”
HALO
digital video, color, 5’ 55”, 2016 (United States)
created by Cassie McQuater
May 14 - 27 2021
Introduced by Gemma Fantacci
In these six animated paintings presented as a single channel video, the artist reenacts situations and motifs from the first-person shooter series Halo and the erotic videogame Dream Stripper. Conceived as a dynamic, virtual collage, HALO shows short stock animation loops of characters dying over and over, with koi, dining chairs, asteroids, guns, flowers, torches, pinball machines, candles, and discarded pillows floating around them, creating a hypnotic motion.
Cassie McQuater is an American artist working with digital media, developing and designing video games and other interactive pieces and installations. Her practice involves hours of surfing the net, mining for digital artifacts, and repurposing them as a way to reflect on and reinvent our relationship with interactive storytelling. McQuater won the Nuovo Award (plus an honorable mention for Excellence in Design) at the 2019 Independent Games Festival for her browser-based game Black Room. Her work has been exhibited internationally. McQuater lives and works in Los Angeles.
IS IT REAL LOVE? OF COURSE NOT!
digital video, black and white, sound, 23’ 02”, 2012-2013 (Austria)
Created by Florian Hofnar Krepčik
Introduced by Matteo Bittanti
April 30 - May 13 2021
vral.org
Is it real love? Of course not! is a unique film entirely shot with/in Driver: San Francisco, a 2011 video game by Ubisoft set in the Bay Area. Organized around seven musical themes imbued with philosophical references and poetic gravitas, this hybrid movie is a distillation of magical moments. By layering images, sounds, and spoken words, the artist creates an unforgettable audio-visual experience. The “story” takes place in the chasm between spaces and characters: massive buildings, multi-lane roads, spectacular bridges, and anonymous pedestrians. Presented at several international festivals and exhibitions — including MU Hybrid Art House (2013), TENT Rotterdam, the Hamburg International Short Film Festival (2014), and HMKV, Dortmund Germany (2014) — Is it real love? Of course not! was also selected for the Best of Graduates 2013 exhibition at Ron Mandos gallery in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
A self-described film composer, Vienna-born artist Florian Hofnar Krepčik draws inspiration from opera, music, film, and theatre. After graduating in 2013 from St. Joost, Den Bosch in the Netherlands, Krepčik created a series of films informed by the logic of music and poetry, including Two Monasteries (2015). His audiovisual productions often follow the structure of a music composition. His stated intention is to recontextualize the cinematic through different media.
LAN PARTY NOTES
digital video (1280 x 720), sound, color, 10’ 20”, 2013 (United Kingdom)
Created by Mateus Domingos
Introduced by Riccardo Retez
LAN Party was an installation originally created by Vanilla Galleries in collaboration with Arc-Vel and Dexter and Finbar Prior, at the Two Queens art gallery in Leicester, United Kingdom, in 2013. The work focuses on the concept of respawn which, in the context of video games, indicates the live creation of a character or item after its death or disappearance. Respawning creates and endless loop of (simulated) life and death. Vanilla Galleries’ work contextualizes such concept in a cultural re-generation perspective, where death and rebirth are visualized through a specific interface, the first-person shooter LAN party. A specially designed custom map has been created by the collective as a place for them to exist and work over a period of time. The installation comprises a number of computers inhabiting the main gallery space at Two Queens and visitors are invited to participate in the contest of the Cultural Deathmatch in order to perpetuate the ongoing cycle of life and death within the setting of the local area network.
Also known as ghostglyph, Mateus Domingos is an artist/writer based in Leicester, United Kingdom. He was a founding member and co-director of Leicester’s artist run gallery and studio space Two Queens. He is a member of Phoenix Interact Labs and manages the publishing project Bruise. He is interested in text, narrative and new digital spaces. His work has included games, 3D printing, fictional alphabets, maps and film making. In 2012 he represented the United Kingdom in Maribor, the European Capital of Culture and World Event Young Artist. Recent exhibitions include Two Queens, Leicester, Phoenix & De Montfort University, Leicester and Modern Painters, New Decorators, Loughborough. In parallel with his artistic practice, he is a producer for the digital arts program at Phoenix, Leicester. He works on artist development opportunities and hosts a series of meetups exploring digital arts practices. He collaborates with Sweden-based Nathan Bissette under the moniker Dead Hand to produce sound, music, and broadcasts. Recently they have released a book of scores and started producing an experimental podcast. He holds a BA in Fine Art from Loughborough University. He lives and works in Leicester.
