In the world of computer game shoot-em-ups there are two main types: ones in which you have an avatar who stands (or rolls or fights or kicks) for you and first-person shooters where you are in control of a gun that sticks into the screen and blasts away everything that comes at you. Now, if we were making a game to blast away at the art world, we'd go for a first-person shooter and that’s just what Florida-based new media artist Hunter (great name) Jonakin has done in his game Jeff Koons Must Die!!!
JKMD!!! Takes place in a Jeff Koons retrospective exhibition. As you get down to business you also get to see most of the key items in the JK oeuvre and the business is to destroy as many JK works as you can with your rocket launcher (it’s a boy’s game). If you choose not to shoot any of the artworks the game comes to an end, but obliterate a bunny, blow up a Balloon Dog or frag an Equilibrium Tank and JK comes out to reason with you (not for very long), and if that fails, dispatches a guard to kill you. Blast your way through that problem and you find yourself attacked by waves of curators (oooooh, I’m so scared), lawyers and gallery assistants who eventually kill you whatever you do. As in so many gallery situations, it really doesn’t pay to rile the staff.
All you potential Koons Killers out there can read more here and see a video of the game in action.
