Game Art: Martin Gabriel's "Video Game" (2015)
In this video piece, Martin Gabriel juxtaposes the spaces of videogames and real (that is, tangible) environments. In fact, he built a sculpture directly inspired by ludic architecture:
As he writes in his
artist statement,
My work is mostly about accessibility of space. I am asking the viewer what and where are the boundaries of the space we live in. For better understanding I can give brief explanation with the example of the computer generated world (CGW). I can see there so many similarities with our reality even if the CGW is created by man there is always a space which is meant to be discovered and then space all around it, which is sort of necessity and is not intended to be discovered although they both must be there because one cannot exist without the other. I see a similar situation in our everyday reality, where the world created by us is a synonym to thoughts, ideas and rules, the world built by man such as cities, houses and apartments. (Martin Gabriel)
Gabriel also developed of sculptures and installations based on id Software's DOOM.
Consider, for instance, physical DOOM II (2013):
Videogames' aesthetics are clearly at play in Nobody Lives Here (2014)...
...And Corridor (2014):
This is how the piece looks in a gallery space, by the way:
His paintings aslo feature several game themes and tropes. Consider, for instance, Video Game (2015)...
...And Skull:
Born in Prague, Czech Republic in 1991, Gabriel graduated from the Royal academy of fine arts in The Hague in 2015.
LINK:
Martin GabrielSubmitted by Matteo Bittanti (all photos by Martin Gabriel)