Whitney Museum collaborates with Design Bridge and Partners to design and host inaugural immersive art experience
Today, the Whitney Museum of American Art presents Refigured: A Virtual Conversation and Tour as the inaugural program in its new virtual event space. Designed in collaboration with Design Bridge and Partners, the fully digital program will be guided by Christiane Paul, Curator of Digital Art at the Whitney, and hosted on Mozilla Hubs at 4pm EST.
As part of the virtual immersive experience, Paul will lead several of the exhibit’s artists in conversation about Refigured, including Morehshin Allahyari, American Artist, Zach Blas, Auriea Harvey and Rachel Rossin, encouraging them to discuss their work while also reflecting on the interplay between our physical and virtual realities. The program will focus on how the artists have thoughtfully reinvented material forms and bodies to imagine alternative ways of constructing identity. Visitors will be invited to watch a livestream of the event on Zoom and explore the artworks in the virtual event space immediately following the conversation.
“As digital technology increasingly intersects with our daily lives and shapes them, we are excited to offer public programs in a virtual world that reflects on this evolution and lends itself to the artists’ work,“ says Paul. “We look forward to exploring the potential and possibilities of future discussions or events in a virtual venue.”
“By partnering with the Whitney Museum, we’ve unlocked new access to the art world, simultaneously enabling viewers to contemplate the ways in which our physical and virtual realities both intersect and diverge,” said Ross Clugston, Chief Creative Officer at Design Bridge and Partners. “This collaboration sets the scene for countless possibilities in which we can reimagine how we experience art without the constraints of physical space and being.”
Design Bridge and Partners used the spirit of the Whitney as a metaphor to capture the essence of the building’s structure, philosophy and surrounding environment, creating a new plane of existence for the museum. The virtual space incorporates light, reflections and material cues from the real world, using asymmetrical forms, and industrial structures to achieve a sculptural presence while embracing the limitless nature of the digital realm.
To learn more about the exhibit, the launch event, and the joint effort between the Whitney Museum and Design Bridge and Partners, please visit: https://whitney.org/events/refigured-a-virtual-conversation.
Program Details
Refigured: A Virtual Conversation and Tour
Thursday June 29, 4pm EST
Location: Online, via Zoom
Tickets: Free with registration
Event link: whitney.org/events/refigured-a-virtual-conversation
About the Exhibition
Refigured brings together five installations by leading artists working in the field of digital art to reflect on the ways technology intersects with and influences our ever-evolving identities, underscoring the dynamic between digital and physical artworks and blurring boundaries between them. Drawing from the Museum’s collection and including digital video and animation, virtual sculpture, and augmented reality, the installations in this exhibition respond to the various forces that form identity and engage with the concept of “refiguring”. Sculptures are presented concurrently in digital and physical space alongside animations that escape the confinement of screens and reach into the gallery. Constructs of identity, self-representation, structures of oppression, and colonialism are explored through a variety of lenses and mediums. Some artists investigate the ways identity is reflected in the structures of artificial intelligence and computer interfaces, while others consider how selfhood transforms in online environments and ancient cultural myths.
The exhibition is on view through July 3rd 2023 in the Museum’s Lobby Gallery, a space that is accessible to the public free of charge and often highlights the latest emerging talent and innovation in American Art.
