This week You! takes a look at the unique artwork of Dennis Rudolph, a German artist, and his inspiration behind it…
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Ever dreamed of hanging artworks by leading artists around your home? Well now you can, thanks to augmented reality or AR as it is known. With everything going digital, the art world doesn’t stay any further behind and has joined the virtual world through AR. Augmented Reality allows you to project 3D models into the real-world through your phone camera. It is an interactive experience of a real-world environment where objects in the physical world are enhanced by computer-generated perceptual information. In this way, augmented reality alters one’s ongoing perception of the physical world environment. Dennis Rudolph, a German artist, who has showcased his work worldwide, employs virtual reality to give people a chance to experience the other side. This week You! takes a look at his unique artwork and the inspiration behind it…
His 3D printing techniques and strokes are brought to life as he puts equally bizarre strokes onto the canvas. Seeing the art take shape before your eyes as you glare into your screens is quite an immersive experience. Taking your camera to an open space where these larger-than-life forms take shape against a backdrop of your choice, adds to the overall experience. He reminisced about the first time he tested out the GSP-based App specifically designed for his works. “The visions that appeared on the horizon in that landscape were nothing less than apocalyptic,”.
Merging the physical and the virtual
The three small paintings were part of the display at the German Consulate, Karachi, were excerpts of larger figures painted in virtual reality. They work as markers for the AR app. The digital painting appears in 3D as seen on your device's screen. The work aims to stitch back the pieces of the world together, allowing the physical paintings to be connected to the virtual landscape - a world where everything is already connected. This experience is seamlessly interwoven with the physical world such that it is perceived as an immersive aspect of the natural environment to stimulate all five senses.
Inspired by the works of baroque painter, Pietro da Cortona ‘The Allegory of Divine Providence’. His recent work “Artificial Deities” featured small paintings abstracted from illusionistic AR/VR paintings. The weightlessness of the AR bodies draws parallels to the floating bodies of the ceiling paintings.
Inspired by the mythological
The series is based on the mythical legend of Eurydice and Orpheus; they were young, in love, and highly dependent on each other. They were so madly in love that imagining a life without the other was impossible. However, as luck had it, one day, Eurydice was bit by a poisonous serpent and she was transported to Hades. Leaving Orpheus devastated, as he devoted himself to pleasing the gods so he could persuade them to bring his wife back to life. He was successful in negotiating the seemingly impossible – but at a condition. As Orpheus and his beloved were ascending from Hades, he looked back to check if Eurydice was there. By going against the instructions, he blew up his chance of bringing her back to life. Similarly, when experiencing art in virtual reality, we are always unsure of its place in the physical realm. Rudolph tries to give these illusionary bodies a form by using oil paintings. He allows us to remain with that reality even when we put our cell phones on the side.
The most exciting element about his display was it doesn’t allow you the agency to click, a mechanical behaviour we have developed in the digital world. While AR art has been around for a few years, it is becoming more sophisticated, capturing the imagination of people and particularly those who game and move in and out of the virtual and real worlds. The merging of AR with the art world opens up many doors for creativity and distinctive artwork.
Dennis Rudolph is a multimedia artist working primarily in augmented reality, virtual reality and painting. His artistic practice derives its primal momentum from a melancholic reworking of the heritage of western culture. Conceiving contemporary art in relation to this backward gaze, Rudolph picks up topics associated with unfinished works of mourning. Rudolph lives and works in Berlin. He studied at the Language and Cultural Institute in Beijing, the Imperial College of Art in St. Petersburg and the Berlin University of Arts, where he graduated in 2004. Since 2004 his work has been on show in galleries in Europe and the US such as: Oude Kerk, Amsterdam, Lily Robert, Paris, Kunstverein Arnsberg, DAZ, Berlin, Galerie Jette Rudolph, Berlin, Concord, L.A., Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam, Perry Rubenstein Gallery, NY, Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, Moscow, KW, Berlin and many others.
