Artist Builds Virtual Worlds in Empty Doncaster Shop

Ian Latham presents his Arts Council Lottery Funded Project 'the geranium project(R&D)' – a combination of installation and Virtual Reality used to create an immersive experience exploring the translation of reality into art through drawing. The installation includes spoken word and film alongside Augmented Reality and traditional painting and sculpture. The Virtual Reality environment takes the participant through a series of gardens made from photographs and drawings accompanied by poetry, sound and film. The project can be experienced in around thirty minutes.

Open, by appointment, from Monday 10th February to Saturday 15th February, or you can drop in between 11:00 am and 4:00 pm on Wednesday 19th February, Friday 21st February or Saturday 22nd February. The Geranium Project is exhibited at 13 Scot Lane, Doncaster, DN1 1EW. This empty shop is rented through Axisweb, a national charity that provides studio spaces for artists.

This exhibition marks the culmination of the first stage of the project which began in June 2019. During the past six months over one hundred and twenty people have called into the shop to experience the installation and try out the virtual reality using a HTC Vive headset. The project has been assisted by local creatives Wayne Sables and Mike Stubbs who have been mentors and Iain Nicholls, an established virtual reality practitioner from Barnsley, all of whom have exhibited Internationally.

Ian Latham, BA Fine Art , MA Creative Technology, Senior Fellow Higher Education Academy, is a digital sculptor. After a long career in FE and HE he retired in 2018.
He has worked with organisations such as the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims
of Torture, Oxfam, Doncaster Museums and Archives, Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council, Responsible Fishing and the Wayne Sables Project and the Cooper Gallery, Barnsley. Ian makes paintings and sculpture based on real and remembered landscapes that are presented together to suggest non-linear narratives, he works with computer based 3d modelling to create virtual environments reflecting the superimposition of memory over place. He has exhibited throughout the North, there are paintings currently on display at Joro restaurant in Sheffield, and had previous exhibitons, solo and group, at
DARTS in Doncaster, the Contemporary Gallery in Barnsley, the Ferens open in Hull and the Keighley Open. He has also shown work in small galleries like the Brevon in Doncaster, Artscreative in Chesterfield and at Granary Wharf in Leeds.

To book a slot to see the installation and try the VR please use the form here http://www.ian-latham.com/blog/book-the-geranium-project-rd/ or, if you have difficulties, contact the artist, Ian Latham, by email; ianlatham1959@virginmedia.com, or telephone 07596619792. You can call into the studio at 13 Scot Lane without an appointment but bookings will be accommodated before drop in visitors.

For more information visit http://www.ian-latham.com/blog