The Year In Exhibitions

- Anne Quito

TRANSDIMENSIONAL SERPENT

DESIGNER: Jon Rafman

EXHIBITION: I Was Raised on the Internet at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

CURATORS: Jared Quinton and Nina Wexelblatt

The Ouroboros—a serpent eating its own tail—is an inspired frame for Transdimensional Serpent, Jon Rafman’s commentary on the all-consuming nature of technology. In the show I Was Raised on the Internet, visitors are transported into the Canadian artist’s unsettling reverie via Oculus Rift VR headsets.

In his work, Rafman often ruminates on the binary nature of VR, an increasingly popular medium in recent years. Beyond the entertainment and gaming industries, VR is proving to be the preferred prototyping tool for interior designers and architects seeking to immerse clients in their unbuilt vision.

But as compelling and empathy-building as VR productions can be, they can also blur our sense of the truth, cautions Rafman. “VR suggests that reality itself has become permeated with the virtual,” he wrote in Artforum. “More and more, we understand the human brain as a computer made of flesh, and our online existence is increasingly intertwined with our real selves.”

CONTEMPORARY TAPESTRY: THE COLLECTION OF ALBERTO FIORENZI

DESIGNERS: Various

EXHIBITION: Alcova, a Fuorisalone event

CURATORS: Space Caviar and Studio Vedèt

During Fuorisalone, a corner of a former panettone factory in Milan became an altar to material innovation. Part of the