DANIELLE BRATHWAITE-SHIRLEY: THE DELUSION
Serpentine is delighted to present THE DELUSION, the most ambitious project to date by London and Berlin-based British artist and game designer Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley.
THE DELUSION will debut a groundbreaking video game commission, a multiplayer immersive experience run on game engines that explores themes of polarisation, censorship and social connection.
At Serpentine North, from 30 September 2025 to 18 January 2026.
Press View: 29 September 2025, 8.30 am-1pm
THE DELUSION will combine satire and absurd humour with cooperative gaming and participatory theatre to explore the real-world impacts of societal division.
Placing the audience at the heart of the experience, the project invites participants to pause, discuss, and reconnect. Conceived as a live “community play” and meeting space, the exhibition will encourage open discussions, shared reflections, and ways to engage with some of the most challenging sociopolitical issues we face today.
THE DELUSION brings together artists, researchers, technologists and members of Brathwaite-Shirley’s Black Trans and Queer community. The project combines advanced technologies with older or ‘obsolete’ techniques, including 2D and 3D sprite animation and the open-source, community-built game engine UPBGE (Uchronia Project Blender Game Engine).
This project continues Serpentine’s engagement and support of Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley’s practice, including a significant period of R&D in 2021, developing prototypes and experimental hybrid gaming projects including WE CAN’T DO THIS ALONE, YOUR PRESENCE ALONE CHANGES HOW OTHERS BREATHE, and THE LACK, co-commissioned by Art Night, NeON Digital Arts and Serpentine Arts Technologies for Art Night Dundee 2023.
Blending fact with speculative fiction, the original narrative concept for the project was a zine developed by the artist, called ‘Below the Blue Line’, set in a post-apocalyptic fictional world at a moment of great turmoil: a new era called ‘Peace by Isolation’.
The project marks the continuation of Serpentine Arts Technologies’ ongoing commitment to exploring the creative and civic potential of video game technologies. An area of focus for the department is game engines and expanded forms of gaming that exist between both digital and physical contexts. Previous projects have included: Ian Cheng, Bad Corgi (2015) and B.O.B. (2018), Jakob Kudsk Steensen, Catharsis (2020); Trust, Hivemind (2022), and Gabriel Massan & Collaborators, Third World: The Bottom Dimension (2023) that has been touring since its first presentation at Serpentine North in 2023.
