Tag: immersive art

REVIEW: Beyond Monet: The Immersive Experience

Published on by Megan FourieLeave a comment

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

An hour of otherworldliness that allows you to step into art and let it follow you back into your daily life. 

Having been to the Van Gogh Alive exhibition before, I was familiar with the concept of immersive art shows. However, like my first experience, I expected more. Press Night began in a gallery set up of prints displayed in gold frames, which didn’t actually feel too contrived. Potentially the only way to experience so many paintings of Monet and Van Gogh in the same room. 

The venue was split into four parts, the initial being the Information Room. Being less knowledgeable about Monet than I am about Van Gogh, I appreciated getting to know more. When you think of Claude Monet, you think of water lilies, a motif which I learned he had spent 30 years painting in his later life. I was also not aware of the artist’s insecurities and I felt very touched by the displayed quote, “It’s got to the point where I dread my own criticism more than that of the most qualified eyes.” Monet continued to paint despite the loss of his vision due to developing cataracts, a fact that changes your perspective when entering the Immersive Room. 

The Waterfall Room was a smaller and shorter taste of what’s to come, but I almost preferred the more serene movement. The effect was greater from the front, but overall, it is still a scintillating mirage of colour and light that really takes you out of the world. Then it was time to move on to the main feature and largest area. All of the walls show relatively the same thing, so I recommend finding a quiet corner of the room without the disruption of other people. I also sat on the floor to really let the projections wash over me. Doing this, it was quite chilly, though but that furthers the impression of the outdoors in the paintings. Although Monet is famous for pastels, there were moments of dark blue that made the following images seem even more bright. There are even more quotes to read in the video and, depending on which direction you face, it helps to have some knowledge of the French language, which I fortunately do. The Waterfall Room is completely calming but I found the Immersive Room too intense at times. The music could be quite suspenseful and the storms uncomfortably vivid and violent. My favourite parts were anything with figures or houses, something more tangible than the rapidly whooshing landscapes. The intricate windows as well as the hay-bales in the falling snow were two other highlights. It was very clever to show the different haystacks side by side as Monet painted the same thing dozens of times as the light changed. 

The Reflection Room was a really nice touch and a way to end that was different. Even though it was only the Beyond Monet portion and not the Beyond Van Gogh, this was a place for the two artists to meet. One side had flowers and the other water lilies. The landscape of A Starry Night featured opposite to a bridge replicating the one that Monet had built in his own garden. It is a unique event that is different from going to a standard museum featuring many artworks that are otherwise impossible to see in Edinburgh. There is a lot of merit to the experience, but a flaw that makes it not so accessible for dyslexic or visually impaired audiences is the excessive amount of written visuals, which could easily have a spoken element. 

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IN CONVERSATION WITH: Scarlett Wang

Published on by ayoungishperspective1Leave a comment

PORTAL 002 is an immersive art experience happening on 12th April at The Plant Room in London. The evening transforms the space into a surreal forest of set design, sculpture, video, and sound. It boasts the talents of artists like Dasha, Wolf Cutt and anetherealbooth (Charlie Jimenez) — pioneers of the underground conceptual performance art scene, known for uniting trans-human, internet-rooted expression with live, embodied practice. We sat down with Scarlett Wang who will be opening the experience.

How does your performance at PORTAL 002 blend with the surreal, immersive environment created by the other artists?

When I saw the theme of this edition—especially the Celtic deer mythology—I immediately thought of a cartoon I watched as a child called Nine-Coloured Deer (九色鹿). It’s based on a Buddhist Jataka tale, where a magical deer saves a drowning man, only to be betrayed by him. That story always stayed with me, and I was struck by how closely it aligned with Portal 002’s world: both stories deal with the act of chasing a deer, a kind of spiritual threshold that opens into another realm.

The performance became my response to that mythic overlap. As a part of the opening ritual, I wanted my performance to be the deer—an ethereal, seductive portal that draws the audience deeper into the event, like an initiation into something unknown.

The visuals and set design being developed for the show also resonate deeply with my piece. The mystical illustrations of spectral beings in forests, the use of organic materials like roots and bark in the sculpture Nym’s building—it all echoes the aesthetic of my performance: reflective textures, glittering blood, cling film, and lace. We’re all contributing different parts of the same dream, just in different media.

What themes or emotions are you hoping to evoke through your opening performance at The Plant Room?

I want the audience to feel something physical, maybe even uncomfortable—something between reverence and revulsion. The performance moves from tenderness to violence, and I’m considering using raw materials like real animal organs or meat to push that further. The beauty of the deer becomes disturbing when it’s consumed. That tension is the point.

There’s also something darker underneath—the desire to capture and possess something sacred. The act of chasing a divine creature to dominate it echoes histories of colonialism: the urge to own, to conquer beauty, to take what doesn’t belong to you. This performance is not specifically about colonialism, but I do think the power dynamics it explores open up many possible interpretations. I hope each audience member brings their own lens—whether it’s about gender, spirituality, violence, or systems of control. That ambiguity makes the work one step closer to mythology.

How do you approach integrating elements of internet-rooted expression with live, embodied practice in your work?

I think for many of us performance artists, there’s always that quiet thought at the back of our minds: What photo will I post after this? It’s a blessing and a curse. We’re constantly shifting between being fully present in our bodies and imagining how that presence will be captured, filtered, and shared. Honestly, this costume was partly born from that instinct—I wanted something that would look striking in photos. The reflective textures, the horns, the glitter—they catch light in a way that makes the image linger.

That combination of synthetic glitter and raw, natural materials also mirrors something deeper in our generation’s aesthetic—a kind of cyber-organic identity. We’re not fully digital, not fully physical. We’re both. So I guess the performance ends up expressing that blend too: something ancient and sacred, but also screen-bright and artificial.

What excites you most about collaborating with artists in such an experimental setting?

What excites me most is that all of them have developed such strong artistic languages. I still feel like I’m in a more experimental phase—there are recurring themes in my work like ritual, struggle, and emotional depth, but I’m exploring different ways to express them. So for me, this opportunity isn’t just about performing—it’s also about learning and expanding by being surrounded by artists I deeply respect.

How do you hope audiences will engage with and interpret your performance within the larger immersive experience of PORTAL 002?

I don’t want to control how people interpret the performance. My hope is that it feels like something they enter, rather than watch—something instinctual, visceral, maybe even uncomfortable. The deer isn’t just a character, it’s a kind of test: do you chase it, protect it, betray it, consume it?

Within the wider Portal 002 experience, I hope my piece acts like a gateway—subtle but charged. A soft opening that pulls the audience inward, deeper into the world the rest of the artists are building. I want it to stir something bodily first, then let meaning come later—if it wants to.

Tickets to Portal 002 are available here.