Co-commissioned and co-produced for the Frieze London Artist Award 2026 with Forma, in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture. Courtesy the artist & The Breeder. Photo: Andrew Judd
Feral Metaverse (Spider), 2026
Theo Triantafyllidis
Powder coated steel, wood, sculpted foam, upholstery, mixed textiles, repurposed footwear, 3D-printed elements, multiplayer video game, 6x networked player stations (13” displays, mini gaming pcs, gaming controllers), 1x spectator station (75” display, gaming pc), 2.1 stereo sound, LAN, embedded electronics.
Dimensions: 365 × 270 × 170 (H) cm
Unique Work
The Frieze London Artist Award 2026 is commissioned and co-produced with Forma, in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture.
Courtesy the artist and The Breeder, Athens.
Key Links:
Frieze Announcement, Images, Gameplay Video, Tech Rider, Feral Metaverse Work Page
Courtesy the Artist and The Breeder, Athens
Feral Metaverse (Spider), 2026 combines a participatory sculpture and an online multiplayer game into a social sculpture: an invitation to negotiate being together through cooperation, vulnerability, awkwardness, and care.
Looming from a distance, the spider reveals a soft, textile-covered, climbable body that serves as both controller and entrance to the game. Visitors must touch, climb, balance, and help one another to play, challenging the conventions of the exhibition space.
Within the game, randomized avatars hug, ride, and attach themselves to each other, forming a temporary collective body with abilities that depend on coordination. These encounters extend beyond the screen: players exchange guidance, negotiate physical proximity, laugh, fail, and try again. Sculpture and game act together as a lure for a social experience, turning spectators into participants and strangers into collaborators.
Developed through an ongoing series of exhibition-based and online iterations, Feral Metaverse explores what an internet commons might feel like. Against the closed, extractive logic of online platforms, it proposes a shared space shaped by collective experimentation, mutual dependence, and play.
