Inspired by the 1983 text adventure The Heroes of Karn and its evocative cover art by Terry Greer, Karn reimagines the image as a looping video installation. A 4K digital composite is throttled through VHS and displayed on a CRT monitor, allowing the image to slowly disintegrate over time — a visual erosion that mirrors the fading of memory itself.
The central figure, eternally mid-stride across a Gothic ruin, becomes a symbol of suspended time — a character trapped in a recursive dreamscape. By merging this reconstructed scene with footage of the original shop where the game was purchased, the work becomes both personal and archival.
Originally exhibited at "Unity Muse" at the former Community Museum, Arcade, Letchworth Garden City.
Related Work: "The Southfields Bugler"
During the 1980's and 90's there a was strong (UK) home grown computer games industry largely supporting the computers of the time - Amstrad CPC464/664, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. 'The Heroes of Karn' was text adventure game, a type of game where you would input instructions based on the text description and, sometimes, graphics displayed. I was very inspired by the artwork of this and other artists work of the time, such as work by Oliver Frey for Crash/Zzapp 64 magazines which in turn helped steer my career towards art.
'Karn' - excerpts
'Karn' - exhibition front window setup