A Carnivale Event, September 1999
“It could be a horror scene from Psycho. A single shower cubicle, blood-red water dripping down the transparent plastic curtains and settling in the plughole. However, GameOver has a much more real and compelling purpose than just cinematic horror, although it does deal with similar media tactics …
Two large grey and black digital prints cover the walls. Made up of thousands of tiny crosses forming target signs, each cross represents a single death during Vietnam and Gulf Wars. Presented on this vast scale, it evokes a mass graveyard of anonymous uniformity. It also shows the comparison between the civilians killed accidentally (euphemised “collateral damage”) and the relatively tiny American and British casualties.
The title PRECISION is ironic. The majority of destruction caused during the Gulf War was not by the so called “smart bombs” so prided in by the Western media, but the old world war II killing machines…
Opposite is a bright painting of a gun with the words “It is only a toy”. As you approach, children’s voices are activated and fill the space. And in between all of this is the shower. Constantly running red from an unknown source.
Joni Taylor, City Hub, 30 September 1999