Artist creates satirical 'monument' to Donald Trump in VR

While you're sitting on the sidelines wondering if VR is worth the cost of entry, visual artists are embracing the medium — and making political statements in the process. 

One of those artists is Dante Orpilla, a Los Angeles-based traditional painter and illustrator who just picked up the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive a few months ago. Orpilla, who also happens to work full-time at Reddit as a designer, uses the full range of VR tools to lay out his vision, including Oculus apps Quill and Medium. 

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His latest work is called "The Trump Memorial," a Medium sculpture he shared on Instagram. Accompanied by a tongue-in-cheek text description, the work serves as a commentary on the U.S. president's immigration policy and addiction to Twitter. 

But beyond art-meets-politics statements, it's the new canvas of virtual reality that appears to have truly captured the artist's imagination. 

"This new medium is an entirely different beast," says Orpilla. "On a piece of paper, or canvas, or wall, or even computer screen ... you have clearly defined boundaries."

"Those rules don't exist in VR. It's like closing your eyes and dreaming … It's exciting and scary at the same time."

But that Medium sculpture isn't even his best work. The most impressive of Orpilla's VR art is revealed in his Quill renderings, which don't just demonstrate his talent with lines and shapes, but with visual narrative. 

"I think that as the tools begin to catch up with our ambitions in this brave new world, and as artists begin to rewrite the rules on what we can and cannot do," says Orpilla, "we will begin to see art take the shape of visceral experiences unlike anything we've seen before."

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