Rachel Maclean, Sahej Rahal, Angela Washko, and Youngju Kim of Loopntale Collective present new digital and games-based art at FACT. It’s really hard to leave.
I went in at about 11:30am and left an hour late for a 1:30pm appointment.
I always feel uncomfortable when you hear that statistic about people spending an average of seven seconds with an artwork in a gallery. It sounds horrifying, but realistically, a lot of that work is presented as a whole, and it’s about experiencing the room, rather than a single work in it.
Here though, I must have spent about 45 minutes with each work, open-mouthed and wide-eyed, just clicking away until the next piece of the game revealed itself. If there’s a reason to be with art for longer, that is only a good thing. And I’d really encourage anyone who thinks they’re not into games, or not into art, to throw themselves into this show because it’s a great entry point into either from the other.
Disturbed Mind Test took up most of my time, crawling around a post-apocalyptic fortification where you, a glowing creature, and the last sentient being alive, try to make sense of what happened to humanity through hidden histories.
I was by myself, trying to navigate this world designed for two players so wasn’t aiming to finish it, but it was beautiful getting to grips with the narrative presented by Sahej Rahal who is, regardless of the medium, a storytelling artist.
Similar themes of storytelling were present in ‘Mother, Player’ by Angela Washko, though the backdrop to it feels like a lifetime a go. It is set within the 2020 Biden Vs Trump US Presidential election, specifically with Trump’s Covid-19 response and the American approach to parenthood.
The artist is US based, but the process of passing through the anxiety of pregancy is universal and useful to have shared in such a direct and involved format.
In the game, you click through options based on your gut response to the situations as they occur, essentially manufacturing your own experience of pregency during Covid-19 lockdowns. It’s daunting, but calm, and the analogue background to the game, which is presented as animated drawings for the most part, offers a grounding in the exhibition space, and a reminder that this is art as well as game.
The reworked ‘Layers of Reality: The Cat’ is on its second visit to FACT, having been developed and exhibited here in 2018. The game, while clunkier than the other two is more bravely conceptual, asking players to explore compassion as a way of working, with the hopeful result that all players and characters are successfully evacuated.
Its time consuming to get to know each and every game, but its worth it to get to know this artform properly.
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Art Plays Games is open at FACT until 27th April 2025
Words, Kathryn Wainwright