"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.