Gray Area presents SMALL VOID, a new simulation-based artwork by Los Angeles-based artist Alice Bucknell. This solo exhibition is Bucknell’s second major presentation of work at Gray Area, following the premiere of their speculative simulation feature film, The Alluvials, which debuted in San Francisco in 2024.

SMALL VOID is a cooperative two-player “call and response” game exploring the limits of language, attachment theory and cosmic annihilation. Developed through the Collide residency program between Arts at CERN and Copenhagen Contemporary, the game’s mechanics are inspired by the paradoxes of black holes and quantum entanglement, and conceived in dialog with theoretical physicists at CERN. The game’s world, meanwhile, is inspired by the aliens beneath our feet—lichens—and the macro-micro, one-many, inside-outside, and living-dead confusion that their very existence instates.

SMALL VOID is also a queer dating sim about the frictions and expansions of identity that love induces, breakdowns of communication, and the ways a world, as an active agent or player, transforms all beings who move through it. Built in Unreal Engine, SMALL VOID is presented at Gray Area in a new, site-specific installation format. The exhibit is a continuation of Gray Area’s focus on artist-made games, creative simulation, and world-building with game engines.

SMALL VOID is developed in collaboration with Jonathan Coryn, scored by Madga Drozd, features a custom typeface by Daytona Mess, and was produced with the support of Vincent Moulinet.

The Gray Area Gallery is open during public events, and by appointment. Please email [email protected] to schedule a visit.