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After successfully exhibiting Downpour, I started questioning the meaning of immersive art and what my installation brings to the audience. I thought a lot about how contained the art piece is to its own space, and how that also meant a contained audience.
Downpour is an immersive installation that was made for people to be able to feel vulnerable and safe while they are processing their own difficult emotions, and I did not want this to be a limited experience. Safety is a feeling that people need to be able to access anytime and anywhere, and I want Downpour to be able to be accessible anytime and anywhere. With this thought, I wanted to challenge the meaning of space in immersive art.
After getting the grant from Sydenham Arts as part of the START: Creative Futures Programme 2023, I was able to realise my vision.
Downpour Prelude is an interactive graphic novel that serves as a more in-depth narration of what happened before Downpour. The book can be read and enjoyed on its own, but it also acts as an extension of the installation. The story in the book is not fully complete until people experience reading it while being inside the installation, therefore the act of reading the book and the book itself becomes a part of the installation piece. Expanding the space of the art piece from its own contained room to the pages of the book, and beyond to where ever the audience bring the book next after the installation. It could be in someone's bedroom, kitchen, birthday party, garden, anywhere as long as people bring the book to a place.
This is still an ongoing project, even though the book is fully completed and already published I still want to expand the book's dimension. It is currently under planning to be created as an immersive installation and as a painting series that can be exhibited on its own.