Wednesday 4th November 2020
Gazelli Art House founder Mila Askarova is pleased to announce the opening of Gazelli’s Virtual Reality Library in the newly renovated lower ground space of the London gallery on Dover Street.
The VR Library, a permanent space that will be open to the public at all time and allow visitors to explore a curated selection of interactive installations from both established artists and new talent, will expand and grow organically over time to include additional artworks from Gazelli.io residents and Gazelli’s previously exhibited artists.
Gazelli has become a significant platform championing non-traditional genre such as virtual reality since the 2015 launch of the popular and annual series “Enter Through the Headset (ETTH)” .
“Gazelli Art House has been at the forefront of bridging technology and art for several years and we are excited to celebrate the medium of Digital Art in a permanent way at the gallery” – Mila Askarova
“Enter Through the Headset’ is at the core of our DNA; after five successful years on our programme, we are now looking forward to opening our unique VR Library to the public.
The VR Library installations, each pushing the boundaries of the medium and raising probing questions about pressing environmental and societal issues, will be presented in a portfolio format that include VR experiences from Gazelli’s artists Jocelyn Anquetil & Charles Harrop-Griffith (UK), Tom Szrites & Xan Adderley with Xavier Sole (UK), Matteo Zamagni (Italy), BrighBLACK (US), Michael Takeo Magruder (US/ UK), Matterlurgy (UK), Gibson/Martelli (UK), Rebecca Allen (US), Claudia Hart (US) and Gazelli Art House’s recent resident Gazelli.io, Shi Zheng (Shanghai/US).
The Library’s highlights include:
Matterlurgy’s Air Morphologies (2020), which investigates the composition of air pollution particles. The artist duo began developing this ongoing project in collaboration with scientists from the University of Cambridge and artsXR, whilst in residency at Delfina Foundation.
Claudia Hart’s Inside the Flower Matrix (2016), which also explored toxic materiality, reimagines Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland in a digital sphere; an Interweb covered with assaulting emojis, that critiques the Internet as a form of commercial strip way. Hart specifically designed five flower species which are corrupted by flashing logos and symbols; throughout the experience the flowers are shown to be randomly growing and decaying and technology has replaced nature in a frightening, plasticized manner.
Shi Zheng’s Unwelt (2019), commissioned by curator Fram Kitagawa for the 2019 Shanghai Urban Space Art Season (SUSAS), subvert the natural landscape, using an installation of four screens displayed as a metaphorical “tree” which exchanges energy and matter. Zheng, uses the screen structure to act as a mirror reflecting the visual landscape in a distorted digital setting.
Jocelyn Anquetil & Charles Harrop-Griffith’s PORTAL series, PORTAL_01, (2017) and PORTAL_00 (2017,) transport users to a dimension of hyper-saturated, hyper-exaggerated feminine characters often seen in science-fiction and video games. With a reminiscent soundtrack by Archy Marshall (King Krule) and Jack Towell, the eerie installation debuted at Boomtown Festival in June 2017.
Gibson/ Martelli’s Man A and Drawing Levels (2019) delve into the complex world of the videogame player and the position of the self, distorting the traditions of the figure and the landscape.
About
Gazelli Art House is a commercial gallery with a wide range of international artists, presenting a broad and dynamic programme to a diverse audience through global public projects and exhibition spaces in London and Baku. Gazelli Art House was founded in 2003 in Baku, Azerbaijan where it held exhibitions with Azeri artists. Having hosted conceptually interlinked off-site exhibitions across London, founder and director of Gazelli Art House, Mila Askarova, opened a permanent space on Dover Street, London in March 2012. In 2017, the redesigned gallery space reopened in Baku, with an ambitious annual program showcasing both local and international artists. Representing artists Aziz+Cucher, Derek Boshier, Stanley Casselman, Francesco Jodice, Recycle Group, Kalliopi Lemos, Niyaz Najafov and Giovanni Ozzola amongst others, the gallery has built a consistent and diverse program with artists working in sculpture, photography, painting, video, performance and virtual reality.
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