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Exhibition showcases art through virtual reality

Alex Pope
BBC News, Bedfordshire
Reporting fromBedford
Andy Willsher A person walking past a virtual reality video on a wall in an art gallery. The colours a bright, bold and colourful. Andy Willsher
Four groups helped create a film by using new technology to create brush strokes, with the final work being edited by Dr Alison Goodyear

The organisers of an art exhibition will draw on the influences of painters through the generations to "bring new technology and digital art to the masses".

Colour and Light, at The Higgins Bedford, will showcase artwork through the ages, from JMW Turner to pop artist Peter Blake and Chila Kumari Burman.

Dr Alison Goodyear, a Bedford-based artist, said she was able to create "innovative, ground-breaking" work with people who did not believe they were "arty".

"We're looking at historical paintings through the lens of contemporary expanding painting practice. We're not ignoring what has gone before - we're seeing it in a new light," she said.

"It shows how digital art can be all things."

The Cecil Higgins Art Gallery Collection A First Rate Taking in Stores, by JMW Turner, showing a number of ships on the sea, with a large sky and large ocean. The colours or muted in mainly blues and creams. The Cecil Higgins Art Gallery Collection
Detail from the Turner piece A First Rate Taking in Stores, painted in 1818, features in the new exhibition

Dr Goodyear worked with four community groups - the Higgins volunteers, Queen's Park Youth Group, Castle Art Life Group and a team of Ukrainian artists - on the show.

She said many believed they were "not artists or arty, but I disagree with that; everyone has the potential to be an artist".

Working with a virtual reality (VR) assistant, Amina Pagliari, the groups were shown how to create VR together in an "immersive space".

What they created was edited into a 26-minute animated film which will be projected on to a wall within the exhibition.

Chila Kumari Singh Burman Cecil and Kali by Chila Kumari Singh Burman. Brightly coloured modern artwork, in reds, purples and blues, abstract showing flowers and other materials. Chila Kumari Singh Burman
Chila Kumari Singh Burman created Cecil and Kali in 2003 which will be back on display, its first time since 2003

Dr Goodyear said: "I felt like a virtual explorer flying around the space creating a film path to capture the content.

"The goal is to bring new technology and digital art to the masses, in a way that hasn't been done before."

The Higgins Bedford A group of people creating artwork using virtual technology, they are wearing headsets and have a virtual paint brush. They are in a room with a monitor, a laptop, desk, tabled and chairs. The Higgins Bedford
The VR artwork was created by four groups, with their age ranges from 13 to 84

Victoria Partridge, keeper of fine and decorative art at the museum, said three of its nine Turner paintings would be on display, including "one of his most famous watercolours, A First Rate Taking in Stores".

The piece Cecil and Kali, painted by the renowned artist Chila Kumari Singh Burman, will also be exhibited, as it was created while Burman was artist in residence in 2003.

"It's a fascinating new way at looking at art through virtual reality," Ms Partridge added.

Andy Willsher Alison Goodyear (left) talking to Professor Christiana Payne (middle) and Dr Mary O'Neill (right). They are standing in a gallery looking at paintings, Alison is holding up her arms, Chistiana has her arms folded in her middle and Mary has her arm to her face, there is a colourful painting on the wall behind him. Andy Willsher
Dr Alison Goodyear (left) worked on the exhibition with two of its curators, Professor Christiana Payne (middle) and Dr Mary O'Neill (right)

The exhibition, supported by Arts Council England, opens on 15 February and runs until 2 November.

The Higgins Bedford A group of schoolchildren looking at brightly coloured artwork that has been projected onto a wall. They are sitting on the floor, with their backs to the camera. You can just see the backs of their heads and their upper bodies. The artwork is in red, yellows, blues and purples and shows lots of different shapes. The Higgins Bedford
Schoolchildren have already enjoyed getting a preview of the new artwork at The Higgins Bedford

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