Adventures in Popland

It starts with Heroes and the General Public as patrons hunt through paintings to find another self. Start with Lee Dongi’s Atomaus to float through stark, graphic happy feelings flying on worlds created SuperFlat. Next the New World order of 16 congress of CDC, by Liu Dahong; look into glass floors to see your face amongst a ceiling of military men.

Stare at Portrait of the Hero, Mr. Wolverine, and think back on all those ripped movie stubs, all the men you so wanted to be. Ji Yeon Hong’s Millenium Fantasy sews together classic culture heros, Mona Lisa, Frida, Van Gogh, with the ones we loved more despite ourselves, Le Petit Prince, Mickey Mouse, Fred Flinstone, and Popeye, all meshed together as a wall of dolls.

But Superman never came to save us from all of our debt. So we’re born into Visa hands, account numbers for every baby boy and girl, says Wang Guangyi with an eerie wall of credit birth. Not the Hero, but King of Pop, Takashi Murakami’s toys are kept in a box. Monograms black and white, and full of color; give life when we spend.

Devour dinner Mimi with Makoto Aida in the future, when food has perished and we must eat the waitress. Sip beer spat out two twats into giant mugs. Tie up arms in the evenings for sex games played with Monopoly dollars. Before Hong Kyung Taek can ask if you are the slave, run down Feng Mengbo’s hall.

Return to those Repressed feelings the pioneer’s couldn’t harvest. Dive down the grasshopper green tunnel into Mario’s living lair. And when the gallery tells you to take the exit, hand back the controller to the attendant, and admit to self and inner hero: Game Over.