Cross-Gen: Play & Iyashikei

Installation with projection and sound, Magnavox 13” CRT TV with DVD video, Nintendo Switch in-game environment capture, vintage Apple iMac G3 with MacOS 8.6 running SimpleText, 75x76x78 in., 2024

Completed during the 2024 SVA Summer Artist Residency Program in Fine Arts: Contemporary Practices, May 26 to June 28 (New York, N.Y.)

Cross-Gen: Play & Iyashikei is an assemblage of real and virtual spaces, as well as old, new and found objects – each one tied to a specific memory, dream, comfort and trauma associated with “play.”

I didn’t play video games for 12 years, until 2019, just before the Covid-19 pandemic. My re-discovery of video games during this time provided my partner and I with a powerful refuge in a way that was totally unexpected. Interactive, virtual worlds became the source of our most tangible comforts. And yet, for me, this comfort was somewhat poisoned by a confusing and unshakeable sense of shame and embarassment simply in the act playing.

This shame propelled me into a mode of research that focused on the effects video games have on our health and well-being. It became a catalyst for me to untangle my complicated history and relationship with “play.” In this way, the work can be seen as a reaction to the difficult questions that arose in me during this period. It is as a reflection of the ways my playfulness as a child was made complicated by trauma and fear. But it is also a reflection of my profound discovery, as an adult, of the proven health benefits of video games, particularly in coping with extreme PTSD.

JESSE MINEO