Sondra Perry (b. 1986, Perth Amboy) creates multifaceted narratives that explore the construction of African American identity and its relationship to digital media and internet culture. IT’S IN THE GAME ‘18 or Mirror Gag for Projection and Two Universal Shot Trainers with Nasal Cavity and Pelvis (2018) makes reference to the use of avatars within computing and draws specifically upon the experience of her twin brother Sandy whose image was used to produce a character for a video game without his knowledge or consent.

The work collages family photographs with images of Sandy’s avatar, which was developed from material supplied by the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) who held the rights to footage of him playing for the University of Georgia basketball team. This material is combined with footage of Perry and her brother visiting museum collections of African, Oceanic and pre-Colombian art in New York and London and the artist’s own avatars that Perry has created of objects from the museums. Presented within an environment painted ‘Chroma Key’ blue – a color employed in making ‘blue screen’ or ‘composite’ images for TV, film or video games – the installation resembles a studio for special effects or post-production. Interweaving personal, family history with the universal concepts embodied in the narratives of museums, the work shifts between notions of private and public, real and virtual and original and copy, raising questions of authorship, identity and cultural bias.

IT’S IN THE GAME ‘18 or Mirror Gag for Projection and Two Universal Shot Trainers with Nasal Cavity and Pelvis has been acquired for Mudam’s collection with support from Allen & Overy, an international law firm with an office in the city of Luxembourg. Since 2013, Allen & Overy has supported the museum with a series of donations of significant works by artists including Ulla von Brandenburg, Mircea Cantor and Su-Mei Tse. From 2019 they have increased their support with the creation of the Allen & Overy Curatorial Fellowship that will have a special focus on artists working with the moving image and new technologies.