With The Flower Matrix, Claudia Hart proposes a new kind of liminal space – a seductive environment for viewing her immersive world. Mixed-reality architecture becomes fantastical, embellished by decorative elements embracing an aesthetic of the fake in which technology has replaced nature, sugary sweet and chemically toxic in equal measures.
The Flower Matrix mixed reality chamber from Claudia Hart is presented at Wallplay’s VR "speakeasy" in the basement of Gallery 151 as part of the TRANSFER VR Commission, a platform for supporting artists who are expanding the potentials for embodiment through considered physical encounters.
In The Flower Matrix Hart reinterprets the "labyrinth of the minotaur", a mythological maze from which there is no escape. As its source, an appropriated computer model taken from the free-online digital repository 3D Warehouse, is covered with an edited selection flashing emojis, the icons of power, money, addiction and control. These are the symbols of casino-capitalism, both seductive and oppressive. An immersive audio score plunges visitors into an intensely embodied and incessantly unfolding narrative of signs and symbols, as they navigate The Flower Matrix. Originating as immersive VR, Hart’s new work also pushes into the real world as hand-thrown ceramics, floor coverings, fabrics, furniture and wallpaper – decor harvested from the imaginary Flower Matrix. Augmented-reality decor is coded to trigger Hart’s custom Looking Glass augmented app. With the Looking Glass loaded on a smart device, users can view animations culled from the Flower Matrix embedded in its surfaces, placing viewers in a disorienting loop of modalities where the rational order of reason and technology has turned in on itself.
New York
Transfer Gallery
Claudia Hart
The Flower Matrix
November 30, 2017 – January 28, 2018
