The 2018 iteration of LiL Pocket Gallery was a collaboration with artist Cryote (Sebastian Millar), an augmented reality art show built on ambition, a single AR headset, and a vision for what Montreal’s art scene could become.
Illusive Sympathy was born from a simple conviction: just do it. In February 2018, Samuel and Sebastian Millar (Cryote) organized an AR art show at LiL Pocket Gallery with minimal resources: one AR headset, a small apartment gallery, and Cryote’s vibrant, psychedelic graffiti murals painted directly on the walls. The AR layer added digital dimensions to the physical paintings, creating a hybrid viewing experience that existed between the physical and the virtual.
They set up a waiting list as visitors cycled through the single AR headset while others meandered through the gallery, viewing Cryote’s physical artwork in the adjacent room. Despite the sometimes rowdy crowd and the precarious single headset, the night proved something fundamental: there was hunger in Montreal for this kind of work, and the XR art culture they were building had real momentum.
The evening was electric. A long waiting list formed as visitors queued for the single AR headset, while a shifting crowd explored the vibrant murals that covered every wall of the small gallery space. The energy was palpable. People knew they were experiencing something new, something that pointed toward a future for art in Montreal.
The headset survived the night. The conviction that Montreal was the perfect place for this new art culture solidified. That evening, Samuel and Sebastian knew they had hit a nerve, and that they could push this much further.
We knew that night we had hit a nerve. We could push this much further. Montreal was the perfect place for this new art culture.
Illusive Sympathy proved that the appetite for immersive art experiences in Montreal was real and urgent. The scrappy, one-headset show laid the groundwork for everything that followed: the Pretend Play AR fashion show later that year, the ELLEPHANT Gallery VR presentations, the twelve curated shows at Art Mûr, and the MURAL Festival AR productions.
The project would not have been possible without the programming skills of Jason Gendreau, who helped bring the AR experience to life. It remains a touchstone in Samuel’s practice. Proof that ambition and conviction can outweigh resources when the vision is clear.
