Game Art: Dan Hernandez' "Genesis 2014" (2014)

Dan Hernandez (b. 1977) re-imagines the Biblical scenes through videogames' lenses, adopting the style and format of the fresco. Just don't call it "post-modern". Currently on display at Kim Foster Gallery in New York, Genesis 2014 cleverly integrates different visual aesthetics and simultaneously offers a considerable amount of word puns (after all, language games are... games). In his statement, San-Diego born Hernandez - whose day job involves teaching in the Art Department at the University of Toledo - writes:

"Genesis is defined as “the coming into being of something; the origin”, but like many words that can be used as both noun and proper noun, what it communicates depends largely on its usage. Two of its usages, and the relationship that exists between them, are particularly interesting and relevant to my body of work. In the first, and probably most well known, Genesis is the title of an important religious text. In the second, and equally well known amongst my generation, Genesis is the Sega video game console that hit the home gaming market in the late 1980s. While these two usages come from very different traditions, they share some common ground. On a basic level both signify a type of narrative device. In the case of the religious text, the Book of Genesis houses the creation stories that are part of the Christian tradition; Noah’s Arc, Adam & Eve, etc. Similarly, the Sega Genesis game console is a vehicle for narrative games like Golden Axe, Streets of Rage, Altered Beast and others. On another level, both of the narrative collections that are associated with these usages of Genesis utilize the supernatural and mythic as a central and reoccurring theme. These comparisons are clearly a bit of a stretch, but within the space that is created by embracing such eccentric relationships there exists unique and interesting possibilities for artistic exploration." (Dan Hernandez)

Genesis 2014 is the follow-up to his previous body of work Genesis (2012), also presented at Kim Foster Gallery. It is also one of the most fascinating Game Art projects of the year.

: Dan Hernandez

: Genesis 2014 @ Kim Foster Gallery (March 27 - April 26, 2014)

Submitted by Matteo Bittanti via Kotaku