‘Truth becomes fiction when the fiction’s true, Real becomes unreal when the unreal’s real,’ wrote Cao Xueqin in his classic novel The Story of the Stone. With excruciating detail, the author constructs the illusory space of literature with mundane realism, blurring the boundaries between fiction and reality. Loosely inspired by the novel, Dreaming of Red Mansions consists of a series of Augmented Reality filters and a twine game. The work reimagines the palace of the goddess Disenchantment set in ‘The Land of Illusion,’ as well as ‘Grand Prospect Garden’ where most of the novel takes place.

​

Link to Twine game: https://mtq45.itch.io/dreaming-of-red-mansions

 

Commissioned by The Photographers’ Gallery. Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

​

​