Danielle Braithwaite-Shirley’s exhibition uses the artist’s recent work blacktransarchive as a starting point and encompasses a new body of work utilising ideas surrounding action, inaction and archiving through play. Danielle creates work that seeks to archive the black trans experience using video games, animation, sound and voice.
In SHE KEEPS ME DAMN ALIVE, this methodology takes shape as an immersive arcade experience: visitors are invited into a space that questions how their choices have affected others through sculptures and video pieces. Via other screen-based work (the visuals taken from recorded gameplay) and sculptural figures clothed in custom-printed fabric, the audience is led to an arcade-style point-and-shoot game centered around “shooting” text popups and enemies across three levels. This interactive part of the exhibition uses a custom 3D moulded gun, acting as a remote control to “shoot” at the projections, mimicking light-gun technology prevalent in old-school gameplay. Working closely with fabricators and coders, the aim is to have a fully immersive experience for solo players inspired by first-person-rail-shooter games and nineties arcade rooms. There will be three large-scale projections in a cube formation, set within a stage of thick black fabric and additional sculptural figures.
Similar to Danielle’s work with hypertext narratives, the game will end depending on the identity the player chooses to assume at the beginning of the game and what they choose to shoot at or interact within their playthrough. Each player will experience a unique set of obstacles in a quest to protect the main protagonist.
