BOB BICKNELL-KNIGHT

Prefab_mushroom_sickener_01, 2024
Ink and acrylic on canvas
30 x 20 x 2 cm

Prefab_mushroom_sickener_01 (2024) was part of Asset Flip, a solo exhibition by Bob Bicknell-Knight at SEAGER, London, UK, 30th May – 1st July 2024.

The exhibition investigated the tools used to create video games as a vehicle for speaking about hyper-capitalism and a general feeling of malaise towards the contemporary moment, with Asset Flip reflecting upon the impending climate crisis and 24/7 hypercapitalism through the lens of prefabricated assets used in video game development.

Within video games, an asset is any resource that is used in the development of a video game, from 3D models to sound effects and pieces of code. An asset flip is a type of shovel-ware (a term for low budget, poor quality video games, released purely for monetary gain) in which a video game developer purchases pre-made assets and uses them to create numerous permutations of generic games to sell at low prices. These games, albeit unpopular, are still regularly bought by unsuspecting buyers, and have been accused of flooding video game markets. Although asset flips are condemned by the industry, the use of pre-made assets, however, is becoming increasingly commonplace in video game development. In the exhibition at SEAGER pre-made assets, appropriated from asset stores, were explored through sculptures, paintings and films, commenting on our 24/7 working lives and the acceleration of global production processes.

A series of paintings throughout the gallery explored how video games are created and the climate crisis. The works are hybrid paintings, beginning as digitally fabricated images within the video game development software Unity. The images are then printed onto canvas, stretched and painted onto with acrylic paint, with the offline artist’s hand interacting with the original digital image. The painting method explores the tension between the digital and physical sides of Bicknell-Knight’s practice and is a collaboration between his digital and physical working methods.

Prefab_mushroom_sickener_01 depicts a Russula emetica, or a sickener, a poisonous mushroom that, if ingested, will make you vomit. Everything you see in the painting, from the dip in the mushrooms cap to the twigs and roots in the background have been purchased as prefabricated assets.

The assets within the painting are simple 3D models with low polygon counts, usually appearing in multiple places across different video games. The use of these models, purchased by game developers rather than being made themselves, appears to be a contemporary coping mechanism harnessed to accelerate the production process of virtual experiences. The painting uses the idea of the prefab as a vehicle for speaking about how the world is in an unstoppable free fall towards a global climate crisis.

Prefab_mushroom_sickener_01 has been included in the following exhibitions:

– Asset Flip. At SEAGER, London, UK, 30th May – 1st July 2024.