LONDON.- Acute Art announces Nina Chanel Abney’s first artwork in augmented reality (AR) for individuals to realise their personal power to shift a situation.

To help us through unusual times and 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 yesterday's March ‘Get your knee off our necks’, Nina Chanel Abney appropriately debuted “Imaginary Friend” at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.




These monumental AR sculptures are freely available as part of a global public exhibition, 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 is also a version of “Imaginary Friend” available for anyone with the Acute Art app to place and interact with at home.

“Imaginary Friend” tells us of a story in which a character, a modern day 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’. This story can be interpreted in multiple ways given our circumstances in the current world and Abney hopes it raises questions.

Nina Chanel Abney, artist, comments: “Inspired by the mythological characters and disincarnate guides whom people turn to in times of trouble, and in collaboration with artists who understand the value of humour in processing grief, trauma, and distress, I created “Imaginary Friend” to offer participants an always-ready companion to mitigate the uncertainty and precarity of today. “Imaginary Friend” asks us to keep at the heart, the value of collective life and public interaction at a moment that threatens to push us further toward alienated being.”

Acute Art app can be downloaded here: https://app.acuteart.com/