Olek

Brooklyn Is A Verb, 2020

VR experience for Oculus Rift or Oculus Quest

In 2020 I was financially rescued by an Artist Relief Grant from United States Artists. That was a miracle needed for my consciousness to be at peace and employ the pause that pandemic forced on us to continue to create. In that stillness I found my true self. I crochet paint inside Virtual Reality with Google Tilt Brush as my crochet virtual hook. Brooklyn is a Verb. The clean start. My Art will never age for you, nor die, nor fade. There is a light at the end of the tunnel and it is not an illusion. The tunnel is. My Art is a paradise. I might never be able to express this in words.

 

Duration: 2:08

360° video

Sound: Olek

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ABOUT THE ARTIST

Olek is a two-spirit person; a child of the witches they did not burn and a self-taught artist. They don’t create art. Art created them so art can be alive. They crochet moments so they will last forever.

 

Olek was born Agata Oleksiak, in 1978, in a communist Poland. They grew up in a place that was very stingy with possibilities and granted them no eccentricities. Olek graduated from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poland with a degree in cultural studies and in 2000 they moved to NYC, where they rediscovered their ability to crochet. Holland Cotter described their first installation as “a tour-de-force”, and since then they have started their crocheted madness. Resume sniffers may be pleased to know Olek's work has been exhibited in galleries, museums and public spaces worldwide and featured in numerous publications. During the 2020 lockdown in Brooklyn, NY they connected to the spirit of Virtual Reality and created a technique christened cropainting (crochet + painting). It is really pure magic. The viewers can get lost in enormous crocheted painted installations that flow freely inside the boundless room. Olek is from The Future, What’s Your Superpower?

If you are interested in exhibiting or viewing this artistic VR experience, please send an email to us.

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