In addition to screening the artwork, the exhibition includes new, ancillary works by the artist, derived from the main Yugen project.

Within the prime arena of the gallery at Alserkal Avenue, Fiennes’ artwork, with the actor Salma Hayek Pinault featuring as the dominant visual presence, explores the boundaries of a radical new media where art, digital technologies, and film practice fuse together to form new possibilities of creative expression.

In Yugen, the visual experience is resonant of a language of dreaming or out-of-body experiences and offers a meditative, other-worldly exploration into perceptions of reality and consciousness. Through technique and subject matter, Fiennes creates a dramatic evocation, stimulating worlds of the subconscious mind.

Still from Yugen by Martha Fiennes

Fiennes brings to her work substantial experience of filmmaking and digital media technology resulting in a pioneering “hybrid” media. Working closely with her producer Peter Muggleston and utilising cutting edge coding technologies, the artist with her team are able to create a continuous, self-selective, generative display with no necessity to “loop” or repeat.

I realise that I’m drawn to combined technologies – from the handmade to the most advanced, state of art technologies.

The experience is further amplified by a hypnotic music and sound score written by composer Magnus Fiennes. Yugen perpetually self-generates with no start or end time, rendering each viewing unique and spontaneous.

Yugen (2018), was premiered to wide acclaim at the Palazzo Grassi during the Venice Film Festival 2018 and subsequently enjoyed high-profile showcases, including at The Serpentine Gallery during Frieze London where it was the subject of a discussion hosted by globally renowned curator Hans Ulrich Obrist.

In 2022, Yugen was Art Dubai’s inaugural digital commission to launch its new digital section.

Yugen was also the first artwork to be registered with .ART Digital Twin, a service that sets the new standard for art object identification.