A new augmented reality (AR) exhibition is bringing art to Londoners as museums remain closed amid the country's COVID-19 restrictions.

Triggered by scanning a red lifebuoy on the banks of the River Thames and set up as a walking tour, it allows participants to locate and view the artworks of world-renowned artists.

The 36 sculptures include works from Nina Chanel Abney, Olafur Eliasson, Cao Fei, Alicja Kwade, Koo Jeong A, Marco Brambilla, Darren Bader, KAWS, Bjarne Melgaard and Tomas Saraceno.

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The curator of the Unreal City exhibition, Daniel Birnbaum, said this new way to view art was done to not only "dematerialize" the pieces, but to do so safely.

He told AFP: "During a period when all museums in the UK, for instance, are closed, we actually staged a massive art show in the public sphere. And it shows at least the potential [to hold AR exhibitions].

"We knew that there are challenges, there are limitations. But it does work, and we have reached thousands of people already with this new art form, a dematerialized art form, weightless sculptures hovering in the air above the river," he added.

"One of the ideas has been to democratize art, in a way to make art visible in places where normally it's not."

The AR exhibition was created in a collaboration between Acute Art and Dazed Media.