“Line” is a virtual reality installation conceived as our first joint artistic work, created by Kelly Mézino and myself.
This installation offers the viewer an intimate immersive experience, allowing them to explore an almost completely dark environment and encounter the Double-Other — the Kellynoïde.
We wanted to convey a deep emotion and to question the relationship between the artist and the model.
The Kellynoïde — an enigmatic golem — plays with the viewer and reveals herself modestly to their gaze.
By directing beams of light with their hands, the viewer creates a form of interdependence between themselves and the Kellynoïde — a relationship that questions the way we look and the way we are looked at.
In the age of virtual reality and digitization, we explore shared themes such as freedom and autonomy through the figure of the muse, thereby reinterpreting the myth of Pygmalion.
We create an artwork that expresses the unique, intimate, and complex bond that emerges when the artist encounters the body of the model — transforming it into a body-as-artwork.
The creation process of Line was long and complex, serving as a prototype for the development of the latest versions of Taupipeline, Taupistools, and Taupemodele.
Together, we seek to identify the bodily, gestural, cognitive, and sensory elements most suitable for digitization and transformation into data — elements that we then reinterpret through our own sensibilities to create a deeply personal artwork.
In sum, Line is a virtual reality installation that holds a special significance for us — first, because it marks the beginning of this new creative process, and second, because it questions our relationship to the body, to beauty, and to the Other.
It was presented at the Recto/Verso festival during the Laval Virtual 2023 exhibition