virtually real

virtuallyreal

virtuallyreal

Petros Chrisostomou

Bruce Ingram

Grant W Miller

James Moore

Suzanne Moxhay

Jamie Tiller

Julia Willms

Simon Woolham

Dawn Woolley

Virtually Real

First published in 2011 to coincide with the exhibition

Virtually Real, 1 March 2011 21 May 2011 The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, except where otherwise stated

All images The Artist 2011

ISBN-13 978-1-874331-44-5

EAN 9781874331445

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a re-

trieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electrical, mechanical

or otherwise, without first seeking the permission of the copyright owners and of

the publishers.

The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery

University of Leeds

Parkinson Building

Woodhouse Lane

Leeds LS2 9JT

Front cover Image: Bruce Ingram, Thousand Years III, 2008Back cover Image: Dawn Woolley, Interloper (fence), 2008/9Designed by James Moore and Dawn Woolley

Printed by the University of Leeds

virtuallyreal

In these angles and corners, the dreamer would appearto enjoy the repose that divides being and non-being. Heis the being of an unreality Gaston Bachelard1

FROM the origins of spatial realism in paintings to the

flattened planes and spaces of modernism, the illusion of

space has been a central aesthetic concern within the

canon of art history.

In a visual culture where photography and CGI create

facsimile spaces that are disposable and instantly

digestible, this exhibition aims to bring together work that

subverts the representation of space. Each work contains

an element of trickery that confounds rather than confirms

our expectations of reality. The artists ask the viewer to be-

lieve in the integrity of their scene, inviting them to look

closer and explore the fiction of the space they have

depicted. Like Bachelards being of an unreality, the

spectator must allow themselves to inhabit a space that

is situated between reality and the imaginary.

The title words Virtually Real form a somewhat oxymoronic

concept. Philosophical ideas of the term virtual reveal it

to be something that has the properties of an actual thing;

something that can issue real effects. We take virtual to

mean not real, but displaying qualities of the real.

Following that definition the other title word real, is

characterised as a confirmation of truth, of a physical

existence. It is perhaps best described by Philip K Dick,

1. Bachelard, Gaston. ThePoetics of Space, Boston,1994, p145

when he wrote Reality is that which, when you stop

believing in it, doesnt go away2. This draws our attention

to subjective and objective realities, and describes an

unmistakable definition of the objective real.

Objectivity is highly problematic when you try to define it or

pin it down. Art works are always subjective to the artist

who created them, offering a unique vision or interpretation

of reality. Works of art are embedded with the intricacies of

the individuals who produced them and the training,

discourse and cultural experience that they have undergone.

In this exhibition, the artists play on our assumptions

of objectivity. The art works appear to represent reality but

on closer inspection we apprehend a certain feature or

detail that stops us believing in the initial interpretation

and the subjective nature of the work comes to the fore.

This inevitably leads to a group of works that display some

traits of surrealism and the uncanny.

Philosophical explorations into an individuals understand-

ing of the real run at least as far back as Plato. One of

Platos main concepts was that we dont live in a world

where things are, but in a world where things seem. In

his work The Republic3, written around 360BC, Platodescribes a theoretical experiment called The Parable of the

Cave. In the parable, we are asked to imagine a group of

people that are held captive inside a cave, and have been

there for their entire life. The captives are held in a fixed

position so they can only see one wall of the cave and

2. Dick, Philip K. How toBuild a Universe ThatDoesnt Fall Apart TwoDays Later, The ShiftingRealities of Philip K. Dick,Selected Literary AndPhilosophical Writings,Ed. Lawrence Sutin, NewYork, 1995, p261

3. Plato, The Republic,Trans. Desmond Lee, London, 1955

cannot move from that viewpoint. Behind their position is

a blazing fire casting light onto the cave walls. In-between

the captives and the fire is a walkway, along which the

captors move, holding up objects so that they cast their

shadows in view of the captives. The only visual experience

that they have is these fleeting shadows moving across the

wall in front of them, and their perception is reinforced by

their discussions amongst themselves about what they are

seeing.

The experiment moves on with one of the captives being

released, initially to explore the cave, revealing to them the

world outside their line of sight. They gain understanding

that the shadows theyve been looking at are not real. The

freed person is then released from the cave into the world,

where they see the fullness of reality.

In the parable the captives inside the cave represent

ordinary people who live in a world of illusion, where the

visible world that they focus on in everyday experiences is

imperfect. The freed person is able to attain the most

accurate view of reality in a constantly changing world. They

are the only one with a concept that there is anything

beyond the reality of the cave wall. They naturally return

to the cave to explain their findings to the other captives,

but face rejection and ridicule from them. As a group the

captives exist in a consensual virtual reality. It is thought

that Plato intended the freed person to signify a philoso-

pher, in particular Socrates, his famous teacher who was

killed by the Athenian state for his philosophical views.

The idea Plato cogitates on in the parable, that people

understand reality based on data that agrees with their

perception, education and shared experience, is central to

many philosophical fictions. A well-known example is TheTruman Show4, in which the central character TrumanBurbank lives a staged life inside a TV show a fact which

is entirely beyond his comprehension. From his subjective

point of view, reality is the world of the small town he lives

within. A chain of events allow doubt to creep into Trumans

world, and the closer he looks at the surface of his

surroundings and the relationships with his friends and

family, the flimsier it all seems. The story climaxes with

Trumans desperate attempt to break out of the fake that

he has become convinced he is living within. The TV shows

creator, acting as the captor from Platos cave, and as a

kind of God that oversees Trumans reality, is convinced that

Truman prefers the fake cell that he lives within to the

rough, unsafe real world outside of the studio. The choice

of whether or not to remain inside a known fiction - a

virtual reality - is central to the films conclusion.

In this exhibition we hope the artworks ask the viewer to

question their perception of reality. The artists play the role

of the captors in Platos cave and The Truman Show. Theaudience is imprisoned by the apparently straightforward

reading of the works, but then becomes aware of the

constructed nature of the scenes. Like Truman, or the

4. The Truman Show, Dir.Peter Weir, ParamountPictures,1998The plot of this film iswidely acknowledged asbeing influenced by PhilipK Dicks novel Time out ofJoint although it is not adirect adaptation.

released captive from the cave, the spectator is unable to

return to belief in the original illusion.

*

Invented architectural space forms the basis of James

Moores work, where subject matter is constructed inside a

computer modelling programme. The paintings Sea Walland Railings are derived from a collage or model thatis built from small sections of hand painted paper, which

are in turn scanned into the computer rendering applica-

tion. A virtual snapshot is taken of the scene and the

resulting image becomes reduced back to the realm of

painting. The work City 17 is the result of a different process it is a reproduction from a computer game. Moore explores

these environments with the eye of a photographer, moving

around the levels ignoring the intended flow of the game,

instead looking for a good virtual photo opportunity. The

snatched stills are then used as a basis for an oil painting

on canvas pulling the hi-tech dynamic virtual space back

to the archaic realm of painting. By presenting these virtual

spaces in the form of paintings, a relationship to reality is

implied. Its not immediately apparent that the paintings

arent depicting real places; it could easily be believed that

they are normal landscapes