DES MOINES, Iowa — After several weeks of work, a new augmented reality mural was unveiled in downtown Des Moines.
Painted by Dutch artist Leon Keer, in collaboration with Principal Financial Group, the more than 8,000 square foot mural was unveiled at 901 Grand Avenue on Saturday evening. The mural is packed with hyper-realistic vintage televisions displaying Iowa landscapes.
In a special addition to the impressive artwork, the ‘screens’ also come to life through a new, free Augmented Reality (AR) iOS app developed by the Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation.
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Keer specializes in anamorphic street art, which distorts two dimensional images to appear 3D from certain angles, worked on the mural for several weeks leading up to it’s grand reveal.
“Yeah, it’s very cool when people are enthusiastic for my art, it’s always nice. We had like, like, the whole week prior to the event, we were up there, and the people were just passing by shouting like, ‘OMG’, ‘Amazing’. So there was already a lot of interaction going on while we were working on the piece,” said Keer.
Keer said he wanted to bring the color and nature of Iowa into the city, where greenery loses its footing every day. Keer says his new piece also makes a commentary on phones and the internet.
“You see, a lot of vintage TVs, and they are depicting the scenes of Iowa. You see the things of nature, which are also visible in Iowa. For me, it feels that you will bring into the city, more and more nature, more color. Also, the television process is about what you see on your phone and if you don’t, just misfortunes and some kind of bad news. So if you try to focus more on the positive energy, that’s what I wanted to say in this,” said Keer.
Learn more about this new mural and other works throughout the metro at the BRAVO Greater Des Moines Regional Arts Council website.
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