Visitors raise lamp-shaped controllers and aim them at a glowing screen, answering prompts as graphics shift in front of them.

It might look like a video game, but here the interaction is part of an artistic curation.

The piece is called 'The Border' and is one of several interactive installations in 'The Delusion'.

Brathwaite-Shirley, the artist behind it, is known for creating works that archive the voices of Black trans communities, uses the gallery to turn visitors into participants.

Among the sculptural figures on display is Legacy Ancestors, draped in patterned fabric, its digital screen head flashing the word ‘SLEEPING’ beside bars marked hope, hate and fear.

The figure titled 'cancelthecancelling' is draped in patterned fabric with synthetic braids and a monitor for a head.

The shifting text and images are intended to reflect debates about call-out culture, suggesting both the hostility and hope that can emerge from online exchanges.

Like other characters in the installation, it forms part of Brathwaite Shirley’s wider archive of Black trans and queer community.

By building these characters as living presences rather than static objects, the artist aims to preserve stories and identities that are often erased from mainstream history.

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley says: “The key themes that are running through the project - there’s actually three key themes which is how does turn into action; the other is why do we dehumanise people and the last one is what should we censor.”

The project began with research into theatre and gaming.

Brathwaite-Shirley spent years experimenting with ways to make audiences part of the work, eventually creating drawings and stories that shaped the exhibition’s world.

“It started all the way back in 2021 with an R&D period where essentially we researched the idea of performative theatre and games together,” said Brathwaite-Shirley.

Other spaces in the gallery include the Meeting Room, where a large circular table acts as a controller, tilting to change projections on the wall.

Visitors play together, moving the visuals with their hands and answering questions that appear on screen.

Art critic Tabish Khan says: “The artwork that involves you opening a door, it always asks you a question, a character approaches you and says, how do you feel about addiction? Or would you let this person in or would you keep them out? And it makes you pause and think, should I be opening a door?”

For the gallery, it's hoped that the merging together of gaming and art in this way will draw in interest.

The exhibition 'The Delusion' runs at Serpentine North Gallery in London until 2 February 2026.