Video/Film
Virtual Reality, digital; between 5’ and 11’; Virtual Reality, director: Paul McCarthy; cast: Mary (Red) – Rachel Alig, Eve – Jennifer Daley; production: Alex Stevens, Naotaka Hiro, Jody Joyner; produced with Khora Contemporary
The work was created as 11 virtual reality experiments, using motion capture to transfer the real movements of the actresses into virtual reality. The virtual reality experiment is based on the long-term project of the artist, ‘Stagecoach,’ or ‘SC’ for short. Encompassing a wide range of different media, the project includes a new film, inspired by John Ford’s Western of the same title from 1939 starring John Wayne. Taking the form of a spin-off, a phenomenon associated with the entertainment industry, the VR work builds on a scene from the film of the artist, involving the two characters, Mary (played by Rachel Alig) and Eve (played by Jennifer Daley). Caught in the claustrophobia of constant surveillance by the two women and their doubles, the viewer becomes part of the vicious hallucination of a psychological mind game. Social conventions break down as the plot unfolds and escalates into a psychosexual trip of rape and humiliation.