Monster Game. Video installation, 16 seconds, 2021.

Plays as a loop, video projected onto a large plot cut vinyl image of an iPhone.

Commissioned by the Niagara Artists’ Centre, this animation was inspired by my family inventing and playing games during the Covid-19 lockdown. This “Monster Game” evolved. It is both the triumph of finding joy within difficult circumstances, and my helpless terror as a mother, watching the crowned figure, the ‘corona’ chasing my child. Rotoscoping this work—that is digitally drawing to hand-trace each image—was peaceful and comforting, helping to allay my pandemic induced anxiety. After I completed this work, I realized the yellow crown and grey cloak are influenced by the blood thirsty terror of the Red Queen in the 1951 animation “Alice in Wonderland.”