Gaming is a way for us to creatively explore other worlds. Games Workshop, Privateer Press, World of Warcraft all provide us with a setting in which to explore, create and develop ideas away from the constraints of history. The extent to which we do so is a matter for each of us but I love to see these universes as a tool box with which we can explore other worlds.
My old friend Russell Anderson explores other worlds too. Russell is an artist, and from his studio in Redcliffe, makes public and conceptual art, filling an increasingly
Russel Anderson- Bubble Machine II
expansive portfolio. If you live in Australia, at least in South East Queensland you may have seen, sat on or been sprayed by some of his work.
I met up with Russell last night for the first time in 17 years. In those 17 years we have both finished uni and got married, I’ve had a child and spent 9 years in London, Russell has established himself as an artist and begun seeding his vision around the public spaces of Queensland.
Russell has just completed a series of public pieces for the new Boggo Road Community precinct in Brisbane, and used the commission to create and tell the Steam Punk Opera of the alternative lives of a man called Cornelius Dempsey.
Russel Anderson- Teabag Jiggler
I wasn’t a gamer when I last saw Russell, and he wasn’t a working artist, but as we ate and drank and talked about his work, it amazed me how I ‘got it’, how the ideas and concepts and ideas he elucidated made sense. How, whilst I might never have the vision to come up with the ‘what’, and certainly not the talent to realise the ‘how’, I had an intrinsic grasp of the ‘why’, because my hobby, like Russell’s art, sees me exploring other worlds.
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