EXILED LAND
2023
VR interactive experience
3D environment, spatial narrative, virtual reality
EXILED LAND is a VR interactive work developed from the history and landscape of Quan’ergou Village, Shanxi. The project takes the former Dragon King Temple—destroyed during the Cultural Revolution—as a point of departure, reconstructing fragments of the village and temple within an imagined virtual environment.
Combining abandoned rural landscapes with visual references drawn from traditional Chinese religious murals, the work places the viewer in the role of a sheep, allowing the site to be encountered through a non-human perspective and a non-linear spatial narrative.
Local Context
Quan’ergou Village once had a Dragon King Temple associated with local beliefs and rituals concerning rain. The temple was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, leaving only fragmented memories, architectural remains, and traces of mural paintings at the site.
Surviving mural fragments found within the remains of the Dragon King Temple provided the primary visual reference for the work’s imagined landscape.
Virtual Environment
Fragments of the village, temple architecture, and mural-inspired motifs are reorganized into an imagined virtual landscape rather than reconstructed as a historically accurate site.
Spatial Narrative
Narrative fragments are encountered through spatial exploration rather than in a fixed sequence. The viewer experiences the environment from the perspective of a sheep, shifting the work toward a non-human view of the village and its ruins.
VR Experience