There’s a Regina Spektor song with the lyric “all the galleries, the museums” and I get a little misty-eyed these days when I hear it. Gone are the days when we could shyly stand side by side with our date in front of an art piece. It’s such a treat to discover art that can overwhelm you sensorially and emotionally. For now, we can have the next best thing: visiting virtual art galleries.
Even before the lockdown, virtual exhibits have been showcasing art to a wider audience. Those that are free also provide people who are unable to purchase tickets or passes to art shows and galleries. The past months have proved that digital landscapes can make the art world more inclusive.
To celebrate International Museum Day this year, we’re checking out virtual exhibits and plotting exhibit launches on our calendars.
“PAUSE”
Artist Anna Bautista and the DF Art Agency have partnered for a solo online exhibition called “PAUSE.” Set to launch on May 21, 2020 via the Exhibitt app, “PAUSE” consists of paintings made during Metro Manila’s lockdown period. With this collection, Bautista aims to “serve as a tribute to our daily wage earners involved in the local trade, whose line of work withholds them of the privileges of working remotely or at socially safe distances.” Making use of the détournement technique that criticizes the existing art it appropriates, the showcase hopes to mirror the experiences of those who are now vulnerable and, at worst, jobless under the parameters implemented for the quarantine.
Part of the proceeds of the exhibit will be donated to daily wage earners in Metro Manila through the non-profit organization Tulong Para Sa Bayan. Donations can also be made through the following:
BPI: 3469106364 (Mariella Arrastia)
UNIONBANK: 109420641464 (Kyla Tempongko)
GCASH: 0917 811 6427 (Michaela Mendiola)
You can also donate through PayPal. Deposit slips can be sent via email to [email protected] or by messaging Tulong Para Sa Bayan’s Facebook page.
“COVIDecameron”
Global platform for time-based art MOMENTUM launched an online exhibit of video art for its 10th year anniversary. “COVIDecameron” asks its audience “to slow down and retreat from the constant barrage of the now, from the oversaturation of events, invitations and offers and from the instant gratification of unending empty entertainments.”
Its 19 featured artists hailing from Australia, Bulgaria, China, Ethiopia, Germany, Italy, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Turkey, the UK and the US address a range of topics related to the “unprecedented anomalies of life in the time of Corona.” From Hollywood montages to portraits of city bats and dystopian airports, it’s a great assortment that will have you contemplating whether or not “new normal” is an okay term.
“KONTINUUM”
Berlin-based Kleine Humboldt Galerie has a project called “KONTINUUM. Something between Archive and Project Space.” It describes itself as “a virtual room for creativity, thoughts on society and the structures that we live in.”
For the month of May, it’s featuring four artists. One of these artists is Hannah Bates who made face masks out of her used panties for her social media performance titled “@pantyrespirator.” She sold these masks on Depop for roughly the price of an abortion to examine “sex, crisis and economics to validate reproductive rights as essential health.”
“Harry Potter – a history of magic”
You might have been bummed about missing out on The British Library’s “Harry Potter – a history of magic” exhibit. But worry not because it now has a virtual tour made available with the help of Google Arts & Culture. Together with “Harry Potter at Home,” you’ll be feeling like yer a wizard in no time.
There are a number of exhibits part of the showcase such as “Ten Strange Things You Didn’t Know About the History of Magic” and “The Bewitching Collection of The Museum of Witchcraft & Magic.” The whimsical set is very informative and contains photos of magical artifacts. Potterhead or not, you’ll be in awe of the effort put into world-building and maybe even wonder whether it’s actually fact rather than fiction.
Art by Dana Calvo
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