Review: Seeing the Invisible-AR exhibition is an extraordinary experience at Kirstenbosch, Cape Town

Review: Seeing the Invisible -AR exhibition is an extraordinary experience at Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden, Cape Town, South Africa

Seeing the Invisible AR exhibition- presented in 12 botanic gardens around the world – ends at Kirstenbosch on Wednesday August 31, 2022. The gardens are open until 6pm

Charge: No charge applies to see the exhibition but entrance rates apply. Note: Tuesday -seniors go in free

Download the Seeing the Invisible app, available for free from Google Play or App Store. Advisable to download the app at home where you have access to data. It is a big download. There is WiFI at the Kirstenbosch Visitor’s Centre but the app did not download when I tried there is no WiFi in the gardens and I used almost a gig of data downloading the artworks

Seeing the Invisible

Instagram: http://seeing.the.invisible

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seeingtheinvisible.art/

Kirstenbosch National Garden

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KirstenboschNBG
Twitter: @KirstenboschNBG
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Check out the featured image on this page [screenshot] and you will see a Grand Piano and a bird chilling on the strings, at Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden, Cape Town. No they did not schlep a grand piano into Kirstenbosch. Well not physically. The piano is a virtual art work, manifested through AR – augmented reality. The artist is Sarah Meyohas from New York City. The work is titled Dawn Chorus. Birds fly around the piano, set to a stirring soundtrack. If you are standing in this spot at Kirstenbosch, the piano is invisible to the eye. In order to see the ‘invisible’ art work in the gardens, one accesses Dawn Chorus, through an app on one’s ‘smart’ mobile device (has to comply with certain specs – see Kirstenbosch website). This art work is part of Seeing the Invisible – AR (augmented reality) exhibition, which opened September 2021, in Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden, Cape Town and finishes on Wednesday – August 31, 2022. Uhhm, I got there today, Monday August 29, in the rain (it was only drizzling). Why did it take me all this time to get there? It was Covid. We were in lockdown. It was cold. I was busy as an arts and lifestyle journo covering tons of events. Let us skip the line of excuses: As they say in the classics, better late, than never. I made it. I urge you all reading, to make a last minute dash and see the extraordinary Seeing the Invisible which is being simultaneously being presented in 12 botanic gardens around the world.

Seeing the Invisible consists of 13 artworks, created by contemporary artists from around the world. At each site on the map, one is prompted by the app to ‘Establish Artwork’. Click and each work is made visible by pointing one’s mobile smart device. Like magic, the work emanates on the mobile device screen. As one moves, the work moves and one can in some cases, enter inside or ‘sit’ on a work. It is extraordinary. In my opinion, the word ‘exhibition’ does not convey the sense of experience and immersion that one has, a viewer. I would say that Seeing the Invisible is akin to a performance event of ‘live art’. The art works come to life, become visible, on the screen and are superimposed into the landscape. As one moves, the image of the art work moves. Some have music and dialogue and soundscape and one experiences the sounds and the visual through the hand held smart device. Beyond the marvel of technology, the work is multi-layered and attuned into the medium – not only of AR but the fact that they are being beamed onto and into landscapes.

It is incredible to think that we are experiencing these pieces in Cape Town, while others are experiencing the same art works, around the world; a range of fascinating works- reflective, emotional, playful and fun. What is remarkable about Seeing the Invisible and its use of AR is that as one views the artwork on one’s screen, one sees other stuff that is going on in the landscape- people walking – birds flying. It is not as if what one sees on the screen blots out everything else. The projected AR artworks is multi-dimensional and is beamed into the landscape but one can still see everything that is there and people who amble through the space.

Seeing the Invisible surprised and delighted me. I went on the weekend (August 2022), without having downloaded the app and discovered that it is a very large download. Today, Monday August, 29, I went again, app downloaded phone on full charge. It is noted in the bumph on Kirstenbosch’s website, that one needs an updated mobile device and that it is advisable to download the app prior to arrival. I found that viewing chewed up almost a gig of data. There is WiFi at the Visitor’s Centre but not in the gardens. Stock up on data or as the Australians say, ‘credit’, before you start your experience and make sure that your device is on full charge as it draws on power. Sadly there is no WiFi in the gardens and no doubt that this has been a barrier in accessing the works for many people and the app will not work on older devices.

When I saw AR and buzz words like ‘phygital’, I segued into thinking that the artworks would be fairly static, superimposed on the landscape. I was thinking – ‘ok, cool, but maybe boring’. This is not the situation at all. Each art work has been dynamically transfigured to ignite a conversations between the viewer and the art piece and the gardens. The piano and birds in Dawn Chorus, made me smile as the birds fluttered over the piano, singing and sprouting bird talk, against the magnificent mountain views.

I was blown away by Pneuma, by Mel O’Callaghan who was born in Sydney, Australia; lives and works in Paris, France. Pneuma is “an ancient Greek word for breath, spirit, or soul.” O’Callaghan is a glass artist and she has created a spherical transparent container which shifts as one moves and looks through. It is very trance like as one gets pulled through the liquid virtual glass sphere. The artist wants us to take deep breaths and reconnect with our spiritual centres. It is a very calming work, hypnotic and diversionary. My mind blanked out for a few moments. I was sorry that I did not have earbuds/headphones. (Kirstenbosch advises viewers to take earphones with- I neglected to do so). There is a meditative soundscape that accompanies the work. It felt like yoga. In the bumph for the piece, it is noted that through “this work and previous breathing works, O’Callaghan explores the ways trance states can be achieved based on breathing, rhythmic sound, and altered posture.” Breathtaking to encounter Pneuma at Kirstenbosch.

As time was ticking, I asked Sarah Struys, the Events and Tourism Manager at Kirstenbosch, to take me to a work which resounded deeply with her, on an emotional level. She guided me to Forget me Not by Ori Gersht. This work is revealed on the pathway near the entrance gate, near the visitor’s centre, It is the pathway that those little buggies chug up and down, transporting those who need assistance to get around the gardens. It was a revelation to see what happened, when I clicked on the prompt, Establish Artwork, for Forget me Not. One sees an urn. To me it looks like a large funeral urn, bursting with flowers. It is an urn, one might to see at the tomb of a famous person in a grand cemetery in Europe. Then the urn busts, erupts, and explodes. The flowers and leaves scatter and ‘fly’. There are insects and shards of stuff and debris. It is beautiful as one is enveloped in petals and leaves and it is disturbing. What happened here? What caused the urn to shatter? A bomb? Unknown explosion? An act of nature? We must not forget – what?

Gersht was born in Israel and lives and works in London, UK. For this work, he was inspired by Brueghel’s painting, Flowers in a Wooden Vessel (1606/7). It is powerful work –flowers for a memorial – my reading – and then whoosh- it all blows up- reminding us how fragile we are; how everything can shift in a second. However, nature endures. I think that standing in the AR scattering of flowers and bits, at Kirstenbosch and one then tries to ‘catch’ petals and leaves – or duck out of the way. All this is happening on a stone path in Kirstenbosch. It feels ‘real’ but what one is seeing and experiencing is invisible to those who are strolling past and have no idea what you are up to. Do not miss Seeing the Invisible. Two days to get there. Kirstenbosch is open until 6pm. Get there.