Exhibition of a Real Live Wonder
Exhibition of a Real Live Wonder is an immersive extended reality (XR) project currently in development.
The project is a transformative, ‘walk-in-their-shoes’ art piece inspired by the life of Sarah Baartman, a South African woman who was displayed in fairs, private parlours and other exhibition spaces in Britain and France during the early 19th century.
Using VR to totally immerse participators in the sensory world of this ‘showgirl’, the project will engage its audience in profound, provocative and viscerally embodied ways in order to decolonise attitudes towards race and womanhood.
It is a cathartic and empowering experience because it blurs the divide between the past and the present revealing the modern connections to historical legacies in order to reclaim the gaze of the black female body.
As well as being a project about body dysmorphia, it is also project about the history and psychogeography of London.
Support and mentoring from B3 Media have enabled me to extend my artistic practice into immersive technologies. As a B3 Media TalentLab XR Associate Artist, I presented Exhibition of a Real Life Wonder at Epic Games London Innovation Lab in 2023 and as a panel member at the Remix Summit 2024.
I received further support to develop the project from British Underground’s Future Art and Culture Connect scheme which sponsored me on the trip to South by Southwest 2024 in Austin, Texas.
