interventions: PacMan
Pac-Man is a maze arcade game released by the company Namco in 1980. The player controls Pac-Man in a maze chase video game; controlling the eponymous male character through the enclosed maze. The objective of the game is to eat all of the dots placed in the maze while avoiding four colored ghosts.Pac Man is beset by ghosts–the spectre of communism. Each ghost has a different name and color so as to represent a particular aspect of the Communist menace. Pinky is, of course, an all purpose stand in, perhaps suggesting the Soviet Union. Inky represents the “subversive” elements within the press and academia. Blinky, colored red, stands in for the Chinese. Clyde is the traitor or infiltrator within the western world.Pacman is killed when one of the ghosts comes into contact with him and so must constantly flee them as he penetrates the maze. The poisonous idea does not die with the man in the game, any more than the Communist ideology is wiped out with the eradication of one band of insurgents. When the ghosts are consumed, their eyes, symbolizing their worldview, float away and are tragically passed on to the next generation of ghosts. The ghosts are not “men” of principle as they are driven by ideological fanaticism and so lack all scruples.
PacMan, Capitalism + Communism
two unsanctioned interventions, Kingston, NY, 2021
materials: acrylic paint, acid-free ink, archival watercolor paper (26 X 18 inches)
