16 November 2022 - 22 January 2023
Manarat Al Saadiyat
Sophia Al Maria, Cory Arcangel, Cream Projects, Simon Denny, Celia Hempton, Paul Heyer, Haroon Mirza, Farhad Moshiri, Trevor Paglen, Nam June Paik, Heather Phillipson, and Andy Warhol.
My Life in the Metaverse is the first visual arts exhibition in the UAE to explore the historical connections, legacies and influences of Web3 technologies on art today.
My Life in the Metaverse immerses audiences into the life and mind of a semi-fictional character called Dr. O. The exhibition, which explores the borders of fact and fiction, narrates the metaverse through the story of Dr. O—a mythical character who finds their life subsumed into the bizarre contours of the so-called ‘metaverse’.
Presenting a curated world from Dr. O's desktop, My Life in the Metaverse ,presents the inner workings of this ecosphere, presenting the not-so-fictional potential of a universe, where ideas, images, opinions, and emotions are progressively shaped by the artifacts found in the seemingly intangible digital sphere. The exhibition offers viewers a gateway and a snapshot into all things ‘meta’ from the rise of Web3, i.e., NFTs, through to renewable energy, cryptocurrency, and the aesthetics of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Narrated collectively by a group of pioneering international artists, many of whom are presenting new artwork in Abu Dhabi, My Life in the Metaverse offers both a historical and contemporary dive into the shape of our collective future.
As part of the exhibition, visitors will also be invited to explore the first prototype of Dr. O’s Pop Shop: The Blockchain Edition, a concept store and living archive inspired by artist Keith Haring's Pop Shops of the 1980s and immersive retail experiences.
Thursday, 16 November 2022 | 16:00-16:45
Speakers: Kate Crawford (AI Specialist), and Trevor Paglen (Artist) in conversation with Dr. Omar Kholeif (Curator)
Speakers: Cream Projects: Ana Nicolaescu and Sebastian Tiew (Artists), Simon Denny (Artist), Paul Heyer (Artist) and moderated by Dr. Omar Kholeif (Curator)
Dr. Omar Kholeif (UK/EG/SU) aka Dr. O is an author of prose and poetry, a historian of the academy and its peripheries, and a curator of vanquished and/or suppressed archives. Dr. Kholeif has worked as a broadcaster, filmmaker, editor, publisher, and a museum director in South Africa, Great Britain, the United States, the GCC and Northern Africa. Over the last two decades, Dr. Kholeif’s work has concentrated on the nature of networked image culture and its relationship to intersectional questions in the field and study of ethnicity, race, gender, and sexuality. Dr. Kholeif has curated 65+ exhibitions of visual art across five continents, and has authored, co-authored, or edited over 40 books, which have been translated into 12 languages. Dr. Kholeif was co-curator of Sharjah Biennial 14: Leaving the Echo Chamber, is the founding director of www.artpost21.com and is Curator of FORUM at 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair. Dr. Kholeif currently serves as Director of Collections and Senior Curator, Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE. Kholeif’s forthcoming monograph, Internet_Art: From the Birth of the Web to the Rise of NFTs is published by Phaidon in 2023.