Enter Kurb Junki’s immersive new exhibition this Christmas
Enter Kurb Junki’s immersive new exhibition this Christmas
Words: Dylan Murphy
Meditative Monitor is a painting exhibition simulation available via QR codes laced across Dublin or on the artist’s website from Christmas day.
Enigmatic artist and designer Kurb Junki has revealed a new online exhibition. Consisting of bespoke pieces that are explored through an immersive three-minute video, Meditative Monitor is available today via QR codes that he has placed around Dublin or on Christmas day via his website.
Placing QR codes on posters across the capital, the link to the exhibition is available once the codes are scanned. Examining our relationship with social media, Meditative Monitor puts the time we spend online under a microscope.
We spoke to Kurb Junki about the new exhibition:
What was the inspiration behind the piece?
2020 was my first year working full time as an artist and one of my goals was to do a solo exhibition. An online show felt like a way for more people to see the work because of all the social distancing and restrictions. It also meant that people outside of Dublin had a way to experience the exhibition in their own time. I felt like a lot of the online shows that I have seen before weren’t very exciting so I wanted to do something different and use my relationship with film making to enhance the way I could present the paintings.
What was the process of developing it like?
It was something that developed quite organically. I had made a whole body of new paintings and I wanted to exhibit them at the end of the year. I started making a page on my website to display the paintings and a video with high res photos of the pieces came naturally. This year I have been investigating ideas of population, social groups, freedom and restrictions. I’ve also always been interested in our relationship with social media, the internet and how long we spend time of things. The posters were a way to share some facts while also creating a portal to my online exhibition through using QR codes. Some of the responses from strangers who saw the show from scanning a QR code in the street have been amazing! One message in particular that I received on instagram was very strong……
“Amazing. Id like to express my amazement and to thank you for providing an alternative way to interact with art. Found your QR as planned, but only left it as an open pending tab waiting for the right moment.
In a pursuit of figuring out what and how to meditate, fitting perfectly for your strategy, I opened your link. It projected so well the reality and the current general mood. The captions were mind-blowing confirmations of exactly what you see, and realising how much it mirrors ourselves. You could find the daily buzz, the constant distraction, the wandering of our minds, but at the same time ,bringing you back to the need of meditation. To that moment of mindfulness. For me you delivered. Brilliant. “
