Krista Kim
Krista Kim is a digital artist whose work explores the concept of digital consciousness. Her interest in digital technology and its revolutionary effects on human perception, media, social structures, and communication led her to work in both digital and physical realms. Having developed her signature language of shifting gradients using digital software since 2012, her works on glass and plexi hypnotize its viewers into a trance of tranquility while her immersive video works provide meditative experiences of color and light. Kim is also known for the design of the Mars House, the world first villa that can be experienced in virtual reality. It was sold in 2021 at a Sotheby’s auction, for 512 000 $.
Regenesis is a zen artistic experience in virtual reality, aimed at bringing serenity to the inhabitants of a social housing area in Mott Haven, South Bronx, New York. Krista Kim designs a virtual metamorphosis of a plot of housing projects built in the 1970s: she brings in warm colors, smooth surfaces, shimmering reflections, levitating veils featuring contemplative images resembling water, as well as a soothing soundscape and, most importantly, tranquility. At the heart of the plot lies a basketball court.
The artist uses the psychological concept of visualization, whereby a subject enhances their well-being through the resources of the mind alone. Following a meditative approach, she accompanies the visitor in the mental effort required to overcome the anxiety caused by an underprivileged neighborhood and focus on what could be. Virtual navigation through the site is an invitation to relax, distance oneself from reality, shift gears, and to change one's point of view.
We chose to include this work in the exhibition because of its strong link with architecture and how it makes reference to the concepts of body and sports: between the towers, the basketball court, in existence since the creation of the Mott Haven district, shows how important the city planners esteem physical activity to be, as a vector for good health as well as socializing.
Not limiting herself to a utopian proposition, which would escape the visitor the second the VR set is taken off, the artist offers the possibility of a new departure in thinking about the city. This work is a pioneering example of digital art and meditation for urban renewal. Haven't art and imagination always been the harbingers of great revolutions?
