Augmented Reality and Acute Art
In the last two years, augmented reality has been at the centre of two major exhibitions by KAWS. In March 2020, the Expanded Holiday exhibition was launched; this was a free, outdoor exhibition that took place across 12 different locations simultaneously. At its heart was a downloadable application, which allowed viewers to ‘uncover’ otherwise invisible monumental sculptures with their smartphone camera.
Describing the formative stages of the ground-breaking exhibition, KAWS noted, ‘we’re going to have a new app where we can invite people, and they can only see it through their device’.
Active in as diverse locations as Hong Kong, Melbourne, London, Doha, and São Paolo, this unique app was created by developers Acute Art. When deployed in certain public spaces, the app would unveil a digital version of the KAWS Companion sculpture, Companion (Expanded), first made famous following its appearance as a gigantic 41-foot long and 24-foot wide balloon at the 2012 Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade in New York City.
In 2022, KAWS announced another augmented reality-based exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery in London. Entitled New Fiction, this was the artist’s first major exhibition in the English capital.
Planned in collaboration with acclaimed AR specialists Acute Art and video game developers Epic Games, New Fiction enabled users of the video game Fortnite to access a digital recreation of the gallery in real time. A curatorial world-first, this allowed millions across the world to experience the artworks on show no matter what their location. On show was a combination of the artist’s more expressive painterly works, such as Mirror (2018) and Sleepless (2018), and recognisable character-based sculptures, including Family (2021) and Untitled (2019).
