Opening Celebration: 'Downstream a Shining Wire' by Tabitha Nikolai

Downstream a Shining Wire sifts through today’s dystopia to create something hopeful. Using virtual reality, Open Signal New Media Fellow Tabitha Nikolai and friends revisit a demolished shopping mall from her childhood. The exhibition incorporates interactive video games, medieval illustrations and video projection art featuring scenes from Richard Adams’ classic novel Watership Down.

Tabitha Nikolai is a visual artist originally from Utah who works in sculpture, text, video games and cosplay. She created Downstream a Shining Wire during her winter 2019 residency as part of Open Signal’s New Media Fellowship in collaboration with Zanna Kerrigan, Cassandra Gladwin, sam, Lilium Kobayashi, Allynn Carpenter and Kelly Thomas.

Special thanks to:
Jeremy Rotsztain, Linden How, Matt Henderson and the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art.

This work was produced in part with help from PICA's Creative Exchange Lab program.

Thank you to the Oregon Community Foundation and The Jane Schiffhauer Charitable Trust for supporting the 2018-19 New Media Fellowship.