The Henry Moore Institute in Leeds presents 'Phantasmagoria: Folkloric Sculpture for the Digital Age,' a major group exhibition exploring how digital technologies are reshaping contemporary sculpture. The show features works by artists including Joey Holder, Jürgen Baumann, and Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, who fuse ancient folklore, occult practices, and modern digital tools such as AI, 3D printing, and video game mechanics. Highlights include Holder's immersive installation 'The Woosphere' with arcade-style consoles and Brathwaite-Shirley's interactive boat sculpture 'PIRATING BLACKNESS/BLACKTRANSSEA.COM.' The exhibition draws on the historical concept of phantasmagoria—18th-century theatrical spectacles using smoke and light—to critique the seductive illusions of digital capitalism.
This exhibition matters because it directly confronts a pressing cultural question: how the immaterial internet is physically grounded in devices, server farms, and material infrastructures. By positioning sculpture as uniquely capable of bridging virtual and physical realities, the show offers a timely artistic response to debates about technology's impact on perception and society. It also revives critical frameworks from thinkers like Karl Marx and Walter Benjamin to analyze modern digital enchantments, making it relevant for both art-world audiences and broader conversations about technology and culture.