The lights went down as the Coney Island Freak Show began and a dying phenomenon of old world carnival culture came to life on stage. The fire eater, a sword swallower, and a human pin cushion took their turns, each act successfully aspiring to match the marvelously authentic black box theater and its home, the Coney Island Museum. As the spectacle wound down I found myself hovering with melancholic joy and was ushered upstairs to the art exhibition, a one-day-only event. Then, appearing before me as though the circus sideshow had not yet ended was a collection of psychedelic illustrations of otherworldly beings who looked me in the third eye and asked, “Will you interview us?” I put the question to the medium (aka the artist) and he graciously agreed.
Just who is this artist? Stealing directly from the about section of his site, Killer Acid, Rob Corradetti is a printmaker and musician from Brooklyn, New York. His Screen Prints are a marriage of intricate pen and ink drawings, cut-and-paste collage, and intense pop psychedelic colors. Rob has also created album artwork and show posters for renowned indie bands including Beck, Man Man, Blonde Redhead, Quintron, Ty Segall, The Black Lips, Surfer Blood, and many more. His artwork has been featured at Giant Robot Gallery (LA / SF / NYC), Printed Matter (NYC), IPCNY, and The Print Center (Philadelphia).
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As an artist with an eye on video game culture, how do you envision videogames merging with the fine art world in the future?
That’s the view from the outside. How about from the perspective of the player/art owner?
What is the player seeing?
Ah, we’re approaching a mirror phase. Your vision of game players in the future has them taking on new identities—perhaps they’ll only feel like their true selves in the game world. As we continue to merge with our technology, will there be a middle path, or will we eventually dive completely in?
Will there be games that help us escape from the clutches of our own games?
Switching gears a bit, how can we expect the concept of play to evolve in the decades ahead?
Will physical toys be extinct someday?
How will our physical spaces, dedicated to games and play, be designed with respect to the empowering nature of virtual toys?
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Rob Corradetti is in the group show, ‘Patterns of Behavior,’ at Booklyn Gallery, Brooklyn on June 16. Then he will be selling prints and t-shirts at Renegade Craft Fair on June 23-24. In October he will be doing a pizza-tastic solo show at the Pizza Museum in Philadelphia.