Critique of VR Art During Lockdown Highlights Conformity and Lost Freedom

The art world's response to COVID-19 lockdowns has been criticized as conformist and naive. British artist Richard Long's exhibition at Sperone Westwater in New York features works like Making a Circle of Stones (2019) and Meandering Flint Line (2020), with flint nodules shipped from Norfolk, England. These pieces are experienced through immersive 3D renderings from locations like Folkestone, England, highlighting the irony of virtual access during travel restrictions. Curator Hans Ulrich Obrist launched Do-it (around the world), a COVID-19-inspired reboot of his do it project from 1993, where artists provide instructions for artworks. Olafur Eliasson's augmented-reality project Wunderkammer allows users to place virtual objects like a sun or boulder in their surroundings via smartphone. The author argues that such stay-at-home art projects, including video content and webinars from institutions, fail to address economic carnage and eroding civil liberties. Long's work, which explores the abstraction of outdoor experiences in gallery spaces, contrasts with the acquiescence of indoor digital art. The critique emphasizes that virtual reality cannot replace the informal social life of visiting galleries, assembling publicly, or protesting. The author proposes a personal do it instruction: meeting a friend in public, shaking hands, and accepting consequences.