180 Projects | connection 240p

connection 240p – lyndsey young

Connection 240p – lyndsey young

April 18th – 21st, 2013

Opening reception: Thursday April 18th, 7-9 pm
Artist talk: Thursday April 18th, 2pm

240p is the standard (normal) resolution for older video games and computers, and is often the resolution I use to watch the live streams of Street Fighter tournaments online. The work is the result of emotionally charged past sensations surrounding video game imagery, specifically the Street Fighter series.

My intense attachment to the game has developed over many years, resonating deeply, and thus manifesting as a misplaced intimacy towards the professional tournament players that comprise the Fighting Game Community; an international grassroots group that originated in arcades over two decades ago. I’ve never lived in a world without Street Fighter; playing the game as long as I can remember, over the past four years I have committed myself to watching online SF tournaments. During this time I’ve become aware of the overwhelming complexity of the game, watching both the engine and the characters optimized by people who are similarly engrossed, and have likewise lived alongside the game. It has become a type of allegory through which I make sense of and participate in the world.

I make portraits of a selection of recurring SF competitors that I have familiarized myself with over the years. To me, these subjects are worth watching and investigating. Their portraits warrant rendering as they represent a group that shares my intimate, and otherwise concealed living space. The digital paintings of these players offer glimpses of a simple, yet intense reality, one that has been very private and very interior. Existing alongside them in this manner provides opportunities for me to learn from and take part in their experiences, which has been quite affecting.

The actual painting of the subjects offers up another opportunity for intimate interaction, as much of the humanity of the work comes from the time spent watching and painting. This is mirrored in the way the players acknowledge that what they do and how they play, is in their heart, and that if it wasn’t, the community would see right through them.

My connection with the players can also be described as low resolution (not in person, not in the real world). The connection isn’t firm; it exists in a digital realm only and on an intangible emotional level.

Installation view, connection240p, 2013

EG|Justin Wong, 9 x 14″ digital painting, inkjet print, 2013 (left) Damdai, 16 x 12″, digital painting, inkjet print, 2013(right)

one of your employees, that muthafucka right there, was incorrect about my intellectual fortitude regarding street fighter and street fighter paraphernalia, animation, 2013

LOVE is EVO after you hold that L and run it back, single channel video projection, 2013