SHADOW PLAY: Tales of Urbanization in China has finally reached completion. The project commenced in 2014 with the objective of digitally visualizing the artists’ investigation into a complex socio – economic reality – the process of urbanization in China. The product, which is a culmination of several years of experimentation, integrates thoroughly-researched narrative storytelling with the sensory capabilities of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies. Over the trajectory of its development, the project has grown into a multiplatform project interweaving VR, AR, painting, and Chinese folk art forms. The artists created numerous visual compositions with traditional Chinese shadow puppetry motifs and transplanted them into a 3D virtual world platform, where the main narrative – the tragic tale of the village chief’s family – unfolds. Lily Honglei subsequently produced a series of large-scale paintings that they dub postdigital fine art based on imagery in the virtual world.
Shadow Play will be presented at Renaissance 2020, a new media art exhibition held in Museum Of San Salvatore In Lauro, Rome, Italy, which also serves as the project premier supported by Creative Capital foundation in New York. Given the potential restrictions on public event during the pandemic and the digital nature of the work, the premier will be simultaneously launched on the Internet. A comprehensive preview of Shadow Play can be found on the project website:
http://lilyhonglei.com/shadowplay2/about.html
Contact Breezy Art Gallery, Italy about the artworks:
