Michael French :: Wrathmaster 3000©

Project room: Duncan Anderson – new drawings and sculpture

March 4 – April 8, 2006
Reception: Saturday, March 4 from 6-9pm
Opening Reception Images

Sixspace is proud to present the interaction multi-media installation Wrathmaster 3000© by Los Angeles artist Michael French. Guest-curated by Lorraine Molina from Bank, this exhibition uses projected video game graphics, gestural interactivity, and cartoon-like sculptural elements in a piece that explores the novelty in art, consequence and inconsequence, as well as power and subordination.

Emerging artist Michael French takes a whimsical approach to the often violent nature of video gaming, one of the many offshoots in the rising genre of digital art. In Wrathmaster 3000© French creates an original video game (as opposed to the many hacked or modified games commonly seen in gaming art), that is surprisingly simple yet reflects today's complicated cultural climate. Viewed as a projection, the video game really has no beginning or end but feeds us an infinite amount of parading soldiers marching down the screen. Rather than using a traditional controller to play, French has fashioned an absurd, yellow cartoon-like hand with built in sensors that responds to the participant's gesture of hitting or smashing it. What appears on the screen is a giant god-like hand (with the audio to match) obliterating the soldiers in mass only to be replaced by countless more men. The viewer is given a moment of pleasurable superiority but to no avail ­ participating in something that's eternal and pointless. The game component includes a persistent death-count that allows the audience to mark their participation in the presentation and outcome of the piece.

Michael French (Los Angeles) received a degree in graphic design with an emphasis on interactive media from Art Center College of Design in 1996. His related experiences as an artist, graphic designer, game developer, and musician have synthesized in his current series of interactive digital art installations, which usually involve motion sensors, video projection, sound components, and game-like visuals. French has also created interactive experiences and online games for such clients as Viacom, ABC Television, Lifetime Television, Noggin Television, Sesame Street, The Discovery Channel, and many others. His work has earned him various industry awards including the One Show Award, the London International Advertising Award, Clio Awards, and the AIGA Competition Award.