Skip To Main Content
Grand Union
Artist Projects

Babeworld x utopian_realism

Artist Projects

In Spring/ Summer 2024, we hosted Babeworld’s biggest exhibition to date. Working in collaboration with sound artist utopian_realism they presented a project that reflected on the ever ubiquitous need within the arts to have new and innovative ideas.

Told through the eyes of a neurodivergent coded character, the project 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.

As a collective Babeworld seeks to create a more representative art world through the creation of art, fundraising, grants, and facilitation of events, especially for those who are marginalised in the arts. With an emphasis on collaboration and co-creation, Babeworld’s practice focuses on themes of political and societal identity, specifically disability/access, neurodivergence, sex work, and race.

The project comprised of an exhibition in the gallery and a series of events that connect in particular with a neurodiverse public.

A landscape image of an exhibition designed to look like a pale pink bedroom. The bedroom contains a messy desk holding a computer set up. Lots of pictures and posters are pinned up on the walls, and stuffed toys sit on a shelf and the floor next to a grey sofa.

Install shot of ‘Love is Real and it’s Inside Of My Computer’ by Babeworld x utopian_realism, exhibition at Grand Union, 2024. Photo by Patrick Dandy.

A landscape image of a screen hung on a wall curtained with black fabric. Purple-blue LED lights shine out from behind the dark screen, illuminating the folds of the dark curtains. On the screen, white text in wavy lines reads ‘Relax as the oceanic sounds swell and dissolve within a glistening cascade of serene cybernetic reverberations.’ The text glows against the dark background it sits on, giving off a soft lilac light.

Install shot of ‘Love is Real and it’s Inside Of My Computer’ by Babeworld x utopian_realism, exhibition at Grand Union, 2024. Photo by Patrick Dandy.

A landscape image of a messy computer desk. The desk holds a pink mouse, keyboard, and xbox controller, alongside a notebook, a yellow pack of swan cigarette filters, and open medication. A computer monitor is partially visible, featuring an unclear dark image and a caption written in write text that reads ' Table? It's getting scrubbed.' Also on the desk is a small black speaker, a capybara toy, and a mug filled with pens that features an axyoltl.

Install shot of ‘Love is Real and it’s Inside Of My Computer’ by Babeworld x utopian_realism, exhibition at Grand Union, 2024. Photo by Patrick Dandy.

Install shot of ‘Love is Real and it’s Inside Of My Computer’ by Babeworld x utopian_realism, exhibition at Grand Union, 2024. Photo by Patrick Dandy.

A landscape image of a darkened gallery space with black walls and a grey concrete floor. Within the room, there sits a simple but large wooden structure built of industrial stud-wall timber. There is a doorway on one wall of the structure, through which a room with pale pink walls can be seen. A mirror and clothing rack are partially visible.

Install shot of ‘Love is Real and it’s Inside Of My Computer’ by Babeworld x utopian_realism, exhibition at Grand Union, 2024. Photo by Patrick Dandy.

You can watch 'Love is Real, and It's Inside Of My Computer' via Babeworld's Youtube channel →You can read the Frieze review of Babeworld x utopian_realism's exhibition here →
'Love is Real, and It's Inside Of My Computer' opened at Grand Union in May 2024, and ran until August of the same year.