Take me with you shares immersive VR experience

Artist collaborators Isobel Knowles and Van Sowerwine are bringing the profoundly touching 360-degree stop-motion VR film PASSENGER to ArtSpace at Realm until 26 April 2020, as part of their new exhibition, Take me with you.

Premiering internationally at the 76th Venice Film Festival, nationally at Melbourne International Film Festival, and winner of the Virtual Reality Award – Best Film at the 60th Thessaloniki International Film Festival, PASSENGER will be accompanied by a showcase of the artists’ major installation works and career highlights.

Charming characters, sets and behind-the-scenes footage which has never been seen before will offer a rare insight into their practice across installation, film, animation, virtual reality and media art.

Over the course of a single taxi ride, audiences will be guided through a new terrain that recreates and investigates the geographic and visual dislocation of arriving somewhere unfamiliar and begin the journey of finding a new home in a foreign land.

“In this era of global refugee crises, and with an increasingly transitory global population, PASSENGER asks the viewer to consider feelings associated with migrating to a new country. We create a surreal shape-shifting world, familiar in texture but with an unknowable logic,” said Isobel Knowles.

“All the built environments in PASSENGER, the suburban streets and industrial estates, are made from simple materials like fabric and cardboard, immersing the viewer in an unpretentious tactile environment inside a contemporary digital experience.”

PASSENGER is the product of nearly two years of labor, including a six-month shoot. Using long, practical sets and a compact 360 ̊ camera, the pair shot over 8000 frames of footage, moving through more than 60 meters of space at 5mm intervals. The result is one of only a few stop-motion 360 ̊ ambisonic films in existence.

“Embarking on our latest project, PASSENGER was a journey into the unknown for us as filmmakers, in parallel to the journey the narrative takes the viewer on. We wanted to translate our experience constructing immersive worlds and telling unique stories in VR, learning a new language of 360 storytelling to create an experience that uses emotion and empathy to connect with viewers”, said Van Sowerwine.

Take me with you will also present stop-motion short Clara, which won a special mention at the Cannes Film Festival in 2005, along with You were in my dream, winner of the 2010 Premier of Queensland’s National New Media Art Award, (Australia’s most significant prize for new media art) and part of the QAG/GOMA collection (Brisbane). It’s A Jungle In Here (2011), award of distinction at Ars Electronica, 2012 and Out In The Open (2016) are also not to be missed.

Isobel and Van are known for technologically adventurous, elaborately detailed animated storytelling through film and immersive installations. The dynamic collaboration between these two artists has produced four ambitious interactive animated artworks and four emotionally engaging stop-motion short films that have moved audiences all over the world.

Exhibition location and opening hours

This exhibition is presented as part of the innovative and engaging Ringwood arts precinct program for 2020. Find out more about our programs at artsinmaroondah.com.au

ArtSpace at Realm
Ringwood Town Square
179 Maroondah Highway, Ringwood