Artist Nina Chanel Abney has teamed up with AR company Acute Art to launch Imaginary Friend, an exciting new way to experience art through Augmented Reality.

Imaginary Friend marks the 57th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, as well as the “Get your knee off our necks” march, that took place in Washington on the 29th. 

The AR work was inspired by fantastical figures who appear in cartoon fairy tales to offer guidance. Imaginary Friend represents a modern-day sage who attempts to give a blessing to a friend, but refuses as the friend doesn’t believe anything good will come from it. This character offers some words of wisdom, expressing: “Sometimes we believe nothing good can ever happen to us, so it don’t.”

This story can be interpreted in multiple ways given our circumstances in the current world and Abney hopes it raises questions.

Download the Acute Art App to experience Imaginary Friend by Nina Chanel Abney as well as other amazing AR art from artists including KAWS, Ai Wei Wei and Marina Abramović.

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In other super exciting Nina Chanel Abney-related news, she features in Third Drawer Down founder Abigail Crompton's soon-to-be-released book Truth Bomb. 

Truth Bomb: Inspiration from the Mouths and Minds of Women Artists is a powerful visual celebration of twenty-two remarkable and iconoclastic women artists, including Yayoi Kusama, Mickalene Thomas, Maja Djordjevic, and Judy Chicago. Using every medium from collages, cartoons, and spray paint
to video art, bronze sculpture, and painting, these pioneering artists’ original ideas have challenged the establishment and continue to do so every day.

Preorder your Truth Bomb copy here.