Game Art: Jonathan Monaghan's "Sacrifice of the Mushroom Kings" (2012)

"The artist is a self-avowed video game fanatic and was highly influenced by video games from his youth, such asSuper Mario Brothers and Street Fighter. Monaghan plucks and alters the characters and environments from these games to create a new narrative. Succinctly describing the film, the artist says, "Sacrifice of the Mushroom Kings depicts a lamb and a bull's journey through my own version of Super Mario's Mushroom Kingdom. The film combines elements from iconic video games with a myriad of references, such as Wall Street, the Metropolitan Club, Bizet's Carmen, and hair products. Taking a comparative mythology approach to certain aspects of contemporary culture, the film aims to mediate basic oppositions such as good and evil, life and death, and reality and fantasy."" (Curator's Office)

Link: Jonathan Monaghan

Submitted by Matteo Bittanti (photos: Jonathan Monaghan)