Corona Pod
Corona Pod is a virtual reality (VR) artwork created using Google Tilt Brush. In VR, the pod is large enough for an adult human to stand inside (it is possible to experience the above SketchFab model in VR). I created this pod during the lockdown as a place to escape, but it transformed itself into a space to dare to imagine what it would be like if my mother were still mother were alive during this time.
My mother died of double pneumonia with early onset Lewy Body Dementia at the end of 2017. As my mother spent her last year in a care home, she would have been very vulnerable to coronavirus and becoming critically ill. If she hadn’t contracted the virus, she would have been confined to her room at the care home. She would have been confused, scared and alone. My mother lived in France whilst I work and live in Canada. With the current travel restrictions it would have been impossible for me to travel to take care of her. Even if I had been in France, it would not have been possible for me to visit her. Had she gotten ill, I would not have been able to be with her in the hospital to comfort her. This scenario is almost too hard for me to bare thinking about. But in the time of coronavirus, hundreds of thousands of people are living the reality of having to live and die in excruciating isolation.
Marilène Oliver
Marilène Oliver works at a crossroads between new digital technologies, traditional print and sculpture, her finished objects bridging the virtual and the real worlds. Oliver uses various scanning technologies, such as MRI and CT to reclaim the interior of the body and create art works that allow us to materially contemplate our increasingly digitised selves.