Twelve augmented reality sculptures hidden across two Montreal parks, visible only through a phone screen. A collaboration between Samuel, Cryote, and Waxhead for MURAL Festival 2021.
Using the MURAL Festival mobile app, visitors to Parc du Portugal and Parc des Amériques could discover life-size digital sculptures—up to twelve feet tall—anchored to specific locations throughout the parks. The works were invisible to the naked eye; only by pointing a phone at the right spot did the creatures and forms reveal themselves, layered onto the real landscape in real time.
Samuel coordinated the AR program: technical setup, spatial placement, app integration, and artistic direction. The works by Cryote drew on his signature organic, nature-inspired forms. Those in the Parc du Portugal took inspiration from azulejo—the decorative ceramic tiles found in Portuguese architecture—while the Parc des Amériques pieces were given carte blanche. Waxhead contributed his iconic character-driven creatures.
The AR format inverted the usual relationship between public art and its audience. Rather than imposing a sculpture on a space, the works existed as a latent layer—present but invisible until discovered. Visitors wandered the parks with phones raised, hunting for creatures perched on gazebos, emerging from hedges, or hovering above the cobblestones.
The effect was uncanny: a twelve-foot creature would appear on screen exactly where you were standing, casting shadows and occupying space, yet completely absent to anyone walking past without the app.
Twelve-foot creatures perched on gazebos and emerging from hedges—visible only through a phone screen. Public art as a hidden layer.
For the Parc des Amériques installations, Samuel created a swirling metallic sculpture that wrapped around the park’s stone archway—tendrils rising from the ground, threading through the gateway, and spreading into the sky above. The piece played on the relationship between the permanent architecture and the invisible digital layer, using the arch as both anchor and frame.
Waxhead contributed his signature character-driven creatures—bold, painted forms with expressive faces placed throughout both parks. A pink stacking figure with closed eyes perched on a tree stump, a teal face with rainbow eyes, and a green teardrop shape, each bringing Waxhead’s unmistakable hand-painted style into augmented reality.
The AR gardens were covered by La Presse and Radio-Canada as a highlight of the 2021 festival, which ran August 12–22. Wall2Wall Montreal described the VR/AR program—featuring Cryote, Waxhead, Samuel, and Iregular—as a defining innovation of the edition.
The program ran alongside the VR Graffiti Projection, where the same group of artists painted live in Kingspray with their work projected onto building walls. Together, the VR and AR programs established MURAL’s first major incursion into virtual public art.