Augmented reality art exhibition goes on display in Birmingham
A collection of poignant paintings commemorating the First World War will be on display at a Birmingham gallery this month.
The Danger Tree by augmented reality artists, Scarlett Raven and Marc Marot, goes on display at Castle Fine Art in the ICC from Wednesday November 8 until the end of the month.
The collection tells an immersive story of the soldiers who fought and fell in the Great War between 1914 and 1918. It was created as a tribute to the Newfoundland Regiment which, under orders from British Command, used a tree halfway into No Man’s Land to assemble. The German artillery caught on, leading to many casualties, and the tree later became known as The Danger Tree.
Scarlett Raven’s collaboration with Marc Marot and use of the app, Blippar, has led her to be the first oil painter in the UK to delve into the world of augmented reality.
Whilst her paintings appear conventional at a first glance, Blippar allows the viewer to unlock the creative journey of each painting with their smartphone, stripping away the layers of paint to reveal the deeply personal process beneath every piece through poetry, animation and music.
Scarlett Raven said: “Through this collection I’m inviting people to view painting in a completely different way. With the Blippar app, viewers can stand in front of the artwork and not only watch the paint strokes in motion, but they can also see my thought processes that brought that painting into being.
“I want people to engage with the work beyond the canvas, beyond the wall and beyond the gallery. I want each piece to become an event in itself – a very personal and intimate event.”
Beth McCarthy, gallery director at Castle Fine Art in the ICC, said: “The Danger Tree collection is without doubt iconic, and the methods that go into these creations are astounding.
“Scarlett and Marc’s collaboration has resulted in works that leave the viewer speechless, and we can’t wait to see our visitors’ reactions during the exhibition.”
Scarlett Raven
Scarlett Raven is a 30-year-old British artist living in England. She is the first painter in the UK to work with Augmented Reality technology. With a degree in Art from Central Saint Martins, she is one of the youngest artists to have had a solo exhibition in London’s esteemed Cork Street Galleries, entitled ‘Seascape’, in 2008, the exhibition attracted the attention of the media and collectors alike.
Since graduating in 2009, Scarlett has participated in a number of group shows across London, and enjoyed another three successful solo shows: ‘Paint’ in Hackney’s Printhouse gallery in 2010, ‘Flight’ in 2012, again on Cork Street, and “The Eleventh Hour” at Castle Gallery in Mayfair. In 2016 she created a painting called “One In Four” to coincide with MIND’s 70th Anniversary and National Mental Health Awareness Week.
