Ryder Ripps’ Diventare Schiavo, Gillman Barracks, Singapore
20 September—19 November 2017
The Ryan Foundation hopes to expand the public’s perception of what art is by looking at new media and sound art created by artist Ryder Ripps, a graduate of the New School who has been described as an "internet wunderkind, artist, coder, creative director and music producer". Ripps has worked with the likes of Kanye West, M.I.A and Nicola Formichetti on creative endeavours that transcend the art, fashion, advertising, digital and music worlds.
Ryder’s work shows the public what the Foundation believes to be the forefront of what "art" is at this day and age. In addition, The Ryan Foundation sees Gillman Barracks as the natural platform to introduce its most recent commission by Ryder Ripps that synthesizes the contemporary and classical; and real life and Virtual Reality.
Become a Slave is made up of two separate works within one space. The first work VRR – "Virtual Reality Reality" (2017), allows the visitor to put on a VR headset and step into the HTC Vive VR headset factory in Taiwan and join a production line to produce the headsets under time pressure. It is a commentary on how a user of VR technology should look no further than the headset itself. The work is a mise-en-abyme that is a critique on VR technology – the factory workers who produce them are "slaves" in the same way that the user of the technology is a "slave" to it.
The second work, Voice of God (2017), is a sound installation that is a critique on the dwindling number of followers of organised religion and postulates that the new "religion" is social media. Within this work, comments from social media are orated in a quadraphonic, 3D soundscape against Allegri’s Miserere, a hymn played in the Sistine Chapel.
Ryder Ripps’ Diventare Schiavo (Become a Slave) will take place at Gillman Barracks (Block 9, Lock Road, S108937) and is free of charge. Opening hours are Wednesdays to Sundays, from 11am to 7pm.
Ryder’s work shows the public what the Foundation believes to be the forefront of what "art" is at this day and age. In addition, The Ryan Foundation sees Gillman Barracks as the natural platform to introduce its most recent commission by Ryder Ripps that synthesizes the contemporary and classical; and real life and Virtual Reality.
Become a Slave is made up of two separate works within one space. The first work VRR – "Virtual Reality Reality" (2017), allows the visitor to put on a VR headset and step into the HTC Vive VR headset factory in Taiwan and join a production line to produce the headsets under time pressure. It is a commentary on how a user of VR technology should look no further than the headset itself. The work is a mise-en-abyme that is a critique on VR technology – the factory workers who produce them are "slaves" in the same way that the user of the technology is a "slave" to it.
The second work, Voice of God (2017), is a sound installation that is a critique on the dwindling number of followers of organised religion and postulates that the new "religion" is social media. Within this work, comments from social media are orated in a quadraphonic, 3D soundscape against Allegri’s Miserere, a hymn played in the Sistine Chapel.
Ryder Ripps’ Diventare Schiavo (Become a Slave) will take place at Gillman Barracks (Block 9, Lock Road, S108937) and is free of charge. Opening hours are Wednesdays to Sundays, from 11am to 7pm.
"Virtual reality experiences are all the rage now, and for good reason too. New York-based artist Ryder Ripps will be presenting his solo exhibition..."
– City Nomads "[A]n interactive and participative Virtual Reality (VR) experience that debuted during the 57th Venice Biennale."
– Expat Living Singapore
©The Ryan Foundation 2018