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Whispers: A digital art show that takes inspiration from a favourite childhood game

This summer, Amsterdam art director Barbara Ryan was supposed to hold an exhibition in the Dutch capital featuring artworks by 50 creatives, until Covid-19 had other plans. But all was not lost, as she's since transformed the show into a sequential art game, made in quarantine.

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All images courtesy of Barbara Ryan

All images courtesy of Barbara Ryan

Working with designer and developer Ben West, Barbara has launched Whispers, a digital chain of fifty interlinked original artworks, each inspired by the previous. It's much like the popular children's game where players form a line, and the first player comes up with a message and whispers it to the ear of the second person in the line and so forth until the final message is compared with the original.

For Whispers, participating artists could take as much or as little inspiration from the previous image as they wanted to. The result is a series of artworks that morph into one another, picking up and often shedding different themes along the way.

"Three years ago, I started this project as an experiment in 'slow-ness'," Barbara tells Creative Boom. "The world today moves at a million miles an hour; projects are often expected to be finished before they're even started. I wanted to start something that would move slow enough to avoid being wrapped up in trends, and one that wouldn't be posted on Instagram the second it was finished."

She adds: "This project is proof of how collaborative work can be made in isolation and also how creativity can connect us all. It's a strange time, but I think it's interesting to see what will happen in terms of creativity."

Three artworks displayed side-by-side: a sketch of a fly with thought bubbles, a surreal desert landscape with figures and objects, and a cosmic scene with planets and "SWOOSH" text
Three artworks displayed side by side: a framed marble-textured piece with gold text, a black background with a white organic form containing gold details, and a white organic silhouette with linear pattern overlay
Three artworks displayed side by side: a text-filled page, a blue illustration of a figure with a cat indoors, and a colourful illustration of a person sitting outdoors surrounded by plants and objects
Three artworks from the Whispers digital game displayed side by side, featuring geometric neon sphere designs in different colour combinations on coloured backgrounds
White figure kneeling indoors under blue pendant lighting, holding a white cat, surrounded by potted plants and bookshelves, with cat bowls and toys visible below
Illustrated woman relaxing on checkered floor surrounded by books, plants, candles, a cat and vase under bright sunshine and blue sky
A bright red octopus-shaped vessel with curved tentacles sits on a geometric patterned surface against a blue sky with a sun and moon, with a small dark fish peeking out from an opening
Colourful illustration of a minimalist interior with pink walls, a yellow potted plant with purple flowers by a window, a purple chair, and decorative cloud and leaf motifs
Digitally rendered flower with luminous blue and white petals, orange centre and glowing red and blue tendrils extending upward against a dark background
Colourful illustration of a figure with orange hair holding a daisy, standing under two spotlights against a pink background scattered with drawn faces and a small orange dog beside them
Stylised black and white illustration of a hand holding a speech bubble containing the word "WOOOOW" in white text on black background
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