Nina Chanel Abney premieres her first AR artwork, ‘Imaginary Friend’

Launching today, Acute Art is delighted to present Imaginary Friend, Nina Chanel Abney’s first AR artwork, free to download via the Acute Art app.

Imaginary Friend tells us of a story in which a character, reminiscent of a religious figure like a sage, tries to give a blessing to a friend, but he refuses it as he doesn’t believe anything good will happen to him. The character leaves us with the phrase ‘sometimes we believe nothing good can ever happen to us, so it don’t’. Abney was inspired by fairy godmothers from cartoons that come into play to offer guidance. This story can be interpreted in multiple ways given our circumstances in the current world and Abney hopes it raises questions.

To mark the 57th anniversary of the historical March in Washington, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr delivered his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech as well as today’s March ‘Get your knee off our neck’, Nina Chanel Abney appropriately debuts Imaginary Friend at Washington Lincoln Memorial. As access to public space and social life has contracted during COVID-19, our imaginary worlds hold greater significance than ever before.

These monumental AR sculptures will be freely available as part of a global public exhibition, placed in locations chosen by Nina Chanel Abney across the US (Chicago, Grand Canyon, New York, Los Angeles, and Washington DC) as well as in Europe (Paris, London and Berlin) and Japan (Tokyo).  There will also be a smaller version of “Imaginary Friend” available for anyone with the Acute Art app to place and interact with at home. Abney and Acute Art worked in collaboration with Chris Chalk, JET and El Tsid, to produce the voice, script and music for this new project.

Download the app and discover Imaginary Friend here.

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