The Light Shines in the Darkness
This body of work marks an important evolution in Leona’s artistic practice. Alongside original oil paintings, the series extends beyond the canvas through augmented reality, virtual reality, and moving image, exploring how painting can transcend its traditional boundaries to become an immersive experience that surrounds the viewer. Through these technologies, she investigates perception, presence, and the transformative possibilities of contemporary art, creating encounters that invite viewers to engage with the artwork in new and unexpected ways.
The Tulip as a Motif of Renewal
Leona’s current work focuses on red and the tulip — symbols carrying layered meanings of life, transformation, fragility, and hope. At the centre of her practice is an ongoing exploration of light and darkness as visual, emotional, and perceptual states, considering presence and absence, uncertainty and renewal, loss and hope. Rather than depicting light as a subject, she creates atmospheres in which it can be sensed and experienced.
Video Path of the Virtual Reality Painting
Virtual Reality Experience
The VR environment extends the visual and material language of the painting into an immersive space. As viewers move through the virtual landscape using a Meta Quest headset, abstract forms gradually resolve into the recognisable shape of a large tulip when seen from above. Rather than illustrating the painting, the VR work expands its spatial language.
Augmented Reality Experience
Alongside the VR environment, Leona developed an augmented reality experience that extends the artwork into the physical exhibition space. Through an iPad, viewers witness a field of tulips emerge beyond the boundaries of the canvas, bringing the painted landscape into their immediate surroundings. Accompanied by an original musical composition played through the device, the experience deepens the atmosphere of the work, inviting viewers to slow down and engage with the artwork in a more contemplative and immersive way.
