Jessica Ticchio

In this day and age, we have the luxury of designing in a new world that doesn’t need to conform to the constraints and limitations of reality. ‘My World’ encompasses my exploration of this new dimension, testing the limits of art and sculpture in a borderless virtual space. My background in experiential design has built the foundation for my art today; my extensive experience with spatial limitations drives my desire to break the rules. With that, I’ve become fixated on ideas of weightlessness, impossible balance, exaggerated scale, stunning height, and fluidity in seemingly rigid materials and spaces with limitless depth and dimension. Ideas that fail in the real world can thrive in the digital one.

"I created this piece for a premiere display on one of the largest screens in the world - the seventy-metre-wide digital billboard in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. The scale of this digital installation felt somewhat unfathomable — more like a sci-fi figment of the imagination. I began thinking about the idea of a 'future of the past'… where we are currently living in a future we used to only ever imagine. I know this revelation isn’t unique, but I was inspired to explore a vision of the future, through the lens of the past. Experimenting with the clash of old and new, I sculpted the hero formation in virtual reality, while channelling a finish of retro sparkles and a neon 80s glow. The inherent duality of the future's past is embodied not just in the subject, but in the process.

Although darker than my signature utopian dreamscapes, there is a softness to the vision; unlikely curves and organic fluidity within the sculpted stack of metal. With fleeting moments of vibrant glowing colour reminiscent of the luminous Hong Kong skyline, my sculpture exists in an unknown realm between the warmth of human touch and the endless vastness of a cool digital city. If this was the future of the past, where are we heading next?"

Digital Artwork by Jessica Ticchio, 2023, 1 of 5.

Exhibition Details: ‘Future Of The Past’ was VR sculpted in the digital world, then exhibited in the physical. For one week during the March 2023 Hong Kong Art Basel, the artwork was exhibited at a soaring 71.7m wide x 19.2m high across one of the largest digital billboards in the world, located in Causeway Bay, at the heart of the city.