Launching on Friday 3 May, Grand Union are excited to announce Babeworld’s biggest exhibition to date. Working in collaboration with sound artist utopian_realism they present a sensorial world reflecting on the ever-ubiquitous need within the arts to have new and innovative ideas. Told through the eyes of a neurodivergent coded character, ‘Love is Real and it’s Inside Of My Computer’ plays on the structures of the gallery and art world, asking us to question and renegotiate how we define what is considered ’new’, ‘exciting’, and ‘taste making’ in the arts. 

Fusing immersive design, pop-culture-infused soundscape, anime-inspired moving image, and embedded access, ‘Love is Real, and it’s Inside Of My Computer’ utilises gaming and internet cultural references as entry points for arts and non-arts audiences; offering new perspectives on neurodivergent obsession as a creative process and problematising the impact of gallery expectations on mental health. 

Based on Babeworld’s lived experience as an intersectionally disabled collective, this commission navigates the fine line between mental productivity and mental burnout, through an experiential understanding of disability whilst exposing the alienation of marginalised folk in the art world. To support Babeworld’s shift from objective and medicalised discussions about disability to empowered personal experiences, the artists will prioritise multiple access modes, including digital and online. 

There is an extensive public programme presented in connection with the exhibition, put together in collaboration with University of Birmingham and Flatpack Festival, please see below for more details.