Kent Sheely is an American digital artist living in New York City who makes art out of, and about, video games. His work includes real-life installations of Super Mario Boxes, classic war-photography in Day of Defeat and the photography-hack Grand Theft Photo. I wanted to know more about Kent's approach to video games and asked him a few questions by email. His portfolio can be viewed at his site.
VGT: Why video games? ;)
Kent: When I was a kid, I used to draw up new adventures for my favorite game characters, incorporating their 8-bit worlds into those from my own imagination. I was never satisfied with just playing the games; I was driven to take them to new places. I guess that sensibility just evolved as I grew up and started finding out about other artists who were using video games to create art. They were validating my obsession.
Games are perfect artmaking tools, because like art, they already abstract the real world and can provide new perspectives on it. They're also a window into both current and nostalgic pop culture, since they have grown up alongside our current generation. It's an ever-evolving medium.
A majority of my work centers around taking elements from either the real or virtual realm and finding ways to interpret them in the other, like a mashup between simulation and reality. It's that grey area that I find most interesting.
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