Virtual Reality

‘Virtual reality’ focuses on the new reality in which we live in, aiming to draw attention to the fact that in 2018 –the digital world is now our authentic world. ‘As civilization advances, nature has retreated, wild animals have become refugees on Earth…and its existence is tolerated’ (Terra, 2015). Planet earth belongs to each living thing as much as it does to humans but disconnected from Earths creatures in today’s 21st century western culture, animals have become increasingly forgotten as we become more obsessed with technology, with the only life we know being learnt and watched through our phone and television screens. Initially inspired by Eduardo Paolozzi’s collaged narrative style, Shonaegh created her own digital work illustrating this disconnection between ourselves and wild animals with clashing over produced colours and prints, she then focused on specific sections of patterns within each animal to create new animal prints and skins to reflect the ‘virtual reality’ we live in now. The visual ‘more is more’ aesthetic also runs parallel to 80s influences through sportswear and elastic materials interacting with the bold electric colour range.