In the Event That...

You've Had Nintendonitis since 1985

by Molly Eichel

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Published: Jun 25, 2008

BITMAP: as good as newMovie exhibition and opening reception Thu., June 26, 4-7 p.m., exhibit runs through July 25, Leonard Pearlstein Gallery, Nesbitt Building, 33rd and Market streets, 215-895-2548, drexel.edu/westphal

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Video game heads rejoice: You've just been upgraded to high-art status. "BITMAP: as good as new," an exhibit celebrating the simplistic glory of early video game technology, makes its way down from Brooklyn gallery vertexList to Drexel's Leonard Pearlstein Gallery tonight.

The group show consists of several types of media, including manipulated technology like hacked video games, in which artists changed the code of old games to create something highly different. In Gr_adius, artist Nullsleep completely removed the player from Nintendo's Gradius. The only reminder of the player's presence is from the bombardment of enemies. Other pieces play with consoles themselves, like Mauro Ceolin's CARTRIDGEdream, which makes action figures out of game cartridges.

"There's also a handful of paintings that emulate the look of this technology. When you look at the piece, you think you are looking at a computer-rendered image," says Ephraim Russell, former director of Leonard Pearlstein Gallery and a sculpture professor at Drexel. "You're talking about a shift in reality. Rather than paint from our physical landscape, they are painting a digital landscape. It's a reversal of what the real landscape is."

Russell decided to bring "BITMAP" to Philly after seeing the initial Marcin Romacki-curated run. It's the aesthetics of older video games and how they affect today's designs that attracted him. "There's something really nice about the old Atari game systems with a faux wood grain finish that aspires to be furniture in some respects," says Russell. "If you look at a PlayStation 3 nowadays, it's a whole different animal. It's a futuristic object — something almost indescribable."

 

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