Vermilion Lake (2011, vertical_format_documentation)

2011 installation: mixed media, computer game environment, 5.1 channel sound

‘The representational space of the virtual lake entwines with the bodily presence of the visitor… to experience it as ‘real’.

Placing the Body in Mixed Reality Sita Popat White Rose research Online 2015

Inspired by the artists’ travels to the snow-driven mountains of the Canadian Rockies VISITOR was developed following research at The Banff Arts Centre. Vermilion Lake comprises a full-scale replica of a trappers cabin housing an interactive virtual environment. A companion moving image piece, where the bears are sleeping, depicts monochromatic imagery of glaciers, forests and frozen lakes. In both works, either a friendly or malevolent force is suggested, evoking the hunter being hunted, the tracker being tracked. Employing techniques used in video games, bringing exterior virtual space into the physical gallery space the exhibition plays with our apprehension of different forms of reality.

‘The worlds they create are total simulacrums: there is no separation between the invented & the real, the site & the represented, the local & the imagined. It is a territory that is cohesive & singular in language, yet simultaneously is forever folding in on itself. Their work engages the particular of the site while undermining its place, the original & point of departure become one in a conceptual unravelling.’

Richard Ducker – Curator, Fieldgate Gallery 2010

‘…half-hallucinatory spectacle’ – The Guardian

House: Greg Cox.

Boat: Matty Bickerton, Sam Lanyon, Pat Bond.

Unreal Developer: Bruno Martelli.

Sound: Adam Nash, Luke Pither.

Programming: James Tan.

Additional modeling: Helen Street, Alex Woolner

Concept & design: Gibson / Martelli

VISITOR is a touring exhibition in association with artsdepot and commissioned by the Henry Moore Foundation and Arts Council England supported by The Banff Centre, Canada