GAME ART: LIZ CRAFT'S MS. AMERICA (2023)
Liz Craft's 2023 Ms. America exhibition at the Centre d'édition contemporaine (Geneva, Switzerland) between November 5, 2022 and February 3, 2023 reimagined the iconic video game character Pac-Man as a commentary on contemporary American culture. Comprised of approximately twenty figurines in varying sizes, all modeled after the classic 1980s arcade icon, the installation transforms Pac-Man into a metaphor for the endless cycle of consumption and addiction.
The bright yellow forms are reminiscent of modern emojis, linking gaming's past to our emoji-filled present. Unlike the aggressive themes of late 1970s arcades like Taito's Space Invaders, Pac-Man was designed around a playful concept aimed at attracting a broad audience across gender lines. Yet beneath the harmless, pizza-shaped character who endlessly gobbles pellets lays a narrative of unsatisfiable hunger, dissatisfaction, and perpetual failure.
Craft portrays Pac-Man as a symbol of compulsive consumerism and opioid addiction - forever chasing temporary satisfaction, trapped in a maze fueled by "magic gums" (symbolic of sugar, pharmaceuticals and other vices). Her work critiques the capitalist mantra of "always more, always bigger" and the blurring lines between legal and illegal drugs. The Pac-Man figures don their signature yellow hue but with exaggerated, almost grotesque heads, adorned with large red bows and cloaked in black tunics. Displayed together, they oscillate between a wailing choir and furious techno-pagan cult, evoking a sense of desperation and chaos. The overall effect suggests a collective plea for liberation from the consumerist prison Craft depicts. America is a toxic mix of dopamine and ketamine.
By transforming an iconic figure of gaming and '80s nostalgia into a cultural critique, the installation prompts audiences to question assumptions about consumption, addiction, and the elusive nature of satisfaction. Craft effectively employs the maze-dweller Pac-Man as a warning, cautioning against the traps of endlessly chasing temporary highs on an increasingly dark and ominous path, one that the Sackler family, for instance, efficiently travelled, killing more than 500,000 Americans on the way.
There's something ominous, dark, and horrifying about Craft's Ms. America.
This is because Ms. America is America, Craft seems to suggest.
Liz Craft (1970, Los Angeles) lives and works in Berlin. Her exhibitions have included those at the Real Fine Arts Gallery, New York, Truth and Consequences, Geneva, Jenny’s, Los Angeles, and at the Neue Alte Brücke, Frankfurt between 2015 and 2022. Her work has been presented in various solo exhibitions, such as: Cavern, at the Neue Alte Brücke, Frankfurt (2022); Do You Love Me Now? at the Kunsthalle und Kunstmuseum,Bremerhaven (2022); Escape From New York at the baby Company, New York (2019); QUERELA at the Galeria Zé dos Bois, Lisbon (2019); Watching You Watching Me at Jenny’s Gallery, London (2018). She has also taken part in numerous group exhibitions: Kreislaufprobleme at Croy Nielsen, Vienna (2019), Tranted Love at Confort Moderne, Poitiers (2018); Sueurs Chaudes at South Way Studio, Marseille (2017); Medusa. Bijoux et tabous at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la ville de Paris, Paris (2017)
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