Gray Area Grand Theater: Sandrine Deumier: Unnatural – Of Humus & Artifact (opening reception)
Gray Area presents the U.S. premiere of Unnatural – Of Humus & Artifact, a solo exhibition of interactive fiction work by French artist Sandrine Deumier. Built using the Unity game engine, this point-and-click narrative immerses the player in a virtual, techno-spiritual vision for humanity’s future.
Unnatural opens in an unknown environment devoid of any artificial construction or other man-madeintervention. Here, a lone, enigmatic figure addresses the player, gradually disclosing the contours of a speculative future. In this realm—known as “The Borders”—humans have advanced technically and spiritually past the need to consume material resources and instead have evolved to live in hybridized, interspecies harmony. Knowledge exchange and spiritual attunement to the non-human world form the foundational values of this reimagined civilization. Exploring this stark yet life-rich landscape, players engage in philosophical dialogue with their mysterious guide who answers questions about the new humanity’s worldview and reveals peculiar new biological entanglements.
The work draws upon Donna Harraway’s concept of the Chthulucene, which emphasizes the inextricable, tentacular connections between humans and non-human living things. Through this framework, Unnatural proposes that existence itself is fundamentally relational. What defines us as being alive is being-with: our capacity to maintain generative, symbiotic relations with others. Rooted by an ethic of care and practices of non-invasive coexistence, this work opens new avenues of reflection on what an inclusive metaverse might look like. Deumier’s game world centers intercultural networks and interspecies communication; the value of time, observation, and curiosity; and the profound power of the imagination to impact reality.
This presentation continues Gray Area’s ongoing curatorial investigation into the role of simulation in creative practice, as well as research conducted through the World Engines Lab. By generating anticipatory fictions and simulating possible scenarios, artists demonstrate their potential to steer the course of the future. In this way, too, Unnatural affirms the power for creative inquiry and critical technological experimentation to imagine new pathways forward. This exhibition follows recent presentations of artist-made video games in the Gray Area Gallery, including Delta_Ark’s Binah: Forms for Wisdom (2024), Melanie Courtinat’s The Siren (2025), and Alice Bucknell’s Small Void (2025).
Sandrine Deumier: Unnatural – Of Humus & Artifact is presented in San Francisco with support from Villa Albertine, in partnership with the Albertine Foundation, the Institut Français, and the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs. Gray Area is proud to be a French Immersion Laureate Institution in 2026 for the second year in a row.
Unnatural – Of Humus & Artifact was originally developed as part of Finland’s OULU Artist in Residence program.