INTO THE WEB

Operating at the crossroads of gaming, art and NFTs, Thomas Webb has drawn the likes of Virgil Abloh, Mowalola and Hans Ulrich Obrist into a pixelated, rebellious and sometimes-magical world of his own creation.

By Amy Francombe

◼ “IN MY GAMES, I GET TO BUILD MY OWN WORLD,” explains Thomas Webb over a seven-course dinner at the restaurant in the five-star hotel he lives in. At the height of the 2020 lockdown, 15,000 people went to the 30-year-old’s exhibition, which took place within his video game, Worldwide Webb. Among the guests were the late Off-White founder Virgil Abloh and Spanish stylist Sita Abellán – the latter surprised guests with impromptu techno sets across the month-long show. ATTENDEES LOGGED IN using their Instagram accounts and milled around the multiplayer game as digital avatars. In this pixelated, 8-bit graphical world – which resembled an anime-fied Berlin – the players undertook quests that led them to “rooms” where they could admire the 12 digital artworks on display. In one of these virtual…

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British GQ Style (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 35

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