Julia Weist Christmas House (Cleveland, Ohio), 2019 28 1/8 x 50 inches archival pigment print in artist frame
Study for Fiction Plane is an image archive of artwork used in simulation spaces—facilities built as “sets” for immersive experiences. The collection documents paintings, photographs, drawings, tapestries and sculpture chosen to heighten the reality of fabricated environments. The archive includes photographs from a variety of artists, in addition to Weist, such as Corinne Botz, Sarah Pickering and Larry Sultan among others. The imagery captures fake hospital rooms populated with actors presenting symptoms to medical students, military bases emulating Afghan villages in the American desert, fabricated domestic spaces set aflame to create burn patterns for forensic trainees, imitation homes where new technologies are tested, a mock city built by the FBI, a Mars simulation and more. Using visual information from the archive, Weist teamed up with two Hollywood-based concept artists (who design environments for Sci-Fi and Fantasy film productions) to create a collaborative series of artworks, entitled Fiction Plane, designed to be included within film and TV sets. The series itself shows a fictitious environment when the works are viewed together and in the correct arrangement. Fiction Plane will debut in the background of network television episodes in 2019.
Julia Weist Smart Apartment (Louisville, Kentucky), 2019 25 5/16 x 45 inches archival pigment print in artist frame
Julia Weist Tenement Museum (New York, New York), 2019 22 1/2 x 40 inches archival pigment print in artist frame