Terminus: Jess Johnson and Simon Ward (online)

_{Image Credit: Jess Johnson, We Dream of Networks, 2016, drawing in fibre-tip pen, fibre-tip markers and gouache. Image courtesy of the artist; Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney; Ivan Anthony Gallery, Auckland and Jack Hanley Gallery, New York}

Terminus: 
Jess Johnson and Simon Ward (online)

A National Gallery of Australia Exhibition.

Curator: Jaklyn Babington (National Gallery of Australia)

We may be temporarily closed but you can still be inspired by the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) touring exhibition Terminus: Jess Johnson and Simon Ward.

You can watch the latest interview with Jess Johnson and Simon Ward and read the interview between Jaklyn Babington, Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, and Jess Johnson and Simon Ward speaking about the conception and construction of their Terminus commission.

WATCH: Jess Johnson and Simon Ward speak about Terminus

READ: Interview between Jaklyn Babington, Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, and Jess Johnson and Simon Ward

More about the artists:

Jess Johnson

Simon Ward

Exhibition information:

With their pioneering use of virtual reality (VR), artists Jess Johnson and Simon Ward hold a unique position amongst contemporary art practitioners. Johnson’s drawings are transformed from analogue into digital, and from solo practice into cross disciplinary collaboration, forming the basis of this virtual experience. Animated by Ward and enriched with input from developer Kenny Smith and sound composer Andrew Clarke, the result is Terminus: a mysterious universe of alien architecture populated by humanoid clones and cryptic symbols, explored via a network of travellators and gateways.

Terminus presents a quest, a choose-your-own adventure into the technological. Visitors will navigate through a slippage of time and space as their journey propels them through five distinct realms: these include the Fleshold Crossing; taking respite in Known Unknown; losing themselves within Scumm Engine; bravely face impending danger in the tower of Gog & Magog; and experiencing the brink of sensory overload in the psychedelic scenes of Tumblewych.

Terminus entails a navigation of the many optical challenges and visual puzzles of the virtual and leads ultimately to an understanding that reality is not fixed but both malleable and multiple.

_{Jess Johnson and Simon Ward
Terminus 2017-18 (still)
Virtual reality experience in five parts: colour, sound
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Commissioned with the assistance of The Balnaves Foundation 2017
Purchased 2018}

_{Jess Johnson and Simon Ward
Terminus 2017-18 (still)
Virtual reality experience in five parts: colour, sound
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Commissioned with the assistance of The Balnaves Foundation 2017
Purchased 2018}

_{Jess Johnson and Simon Ward Working drawing for Terminus 2018
Image courtesy of the artists; Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney; Ivan Anthony Gallery, Auckland and Jack Hanley Gallery, New York}

_{Jess Johnson and Simon Ward
Terminus 2017-18 (still)
Virtual reality experience in five parts: colour, sound
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Commissioned with the assistance of The Balnaves Foundation 2017
Purchased 2018}

Terminus is a National Gallery of Australia exhibition.

The National Gallery of Australia acknowledges funding support from the Visions of Australia an Australian Government program aiming to improve access to the national collections for all Australians. Terminus was commissioned with the assistance of The Balnaves Foundation.

This is a National Gallery of Australia exhibition and is touring Australia as part of the National Gallery of Australia's travelling exhibitions program.

Image credit (below):

Jess Johnson and Simon Ward
Terminus 2017-18
Installation view, Plimsoll Gallery, Hobart, 2020
Virtual reality experience in five parts: colour, sound
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Commissioned with the assistance of The Balnaves Foundation 2017
Purchased 2018
©Jess Johnson and Simon Ward. Photo credit: Rémi Chauvin