Radiation underground and in the sky
Animals and birds who live nearby are dying
Ohh Flomm in Jer-sey, ahh things ain’t what they used to be
—Lyrics by Marvin Gaye, sorta, almost-ish
Flomm is all about history.
And what better place for Flomm, then to show up in a gallery adjacent to the archive of RCA-founder David Sarnoff – one of the characters (not necessary the hero) in one of my favorite documentaries, Ken Burns’ Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio (1992). (The dial of an Armstrong FM receiver appears somewhere in the FLOMM! game – blink and you’ll miss it.)
Now open at the Art Gallery at the College of New Jersey is A Palette of Pixels: The Evolving Art of Video Games.
The exhibition focuses on video games as a medium of artistic expression and communication – and amongst the more than 20 games selected is FLOMM! THE BATTLE For MODERN 1923 – my five year procrastination project that is the starting point for this overarching flommworld I now inhabit.
They asked me for my notebooks
flashed thru my mind,
do I even know where they are??
I’ve been thru a foreclosure, moved twice and most of what I own is scattered between storage closets and the county dump. Luckily, most of the preliminary artwork was in one place: An orange IKEA box that I’d managed to keep undamaged.
Didn’t even realize I’d remembered to wedge all the somewhat-important stuff inside. Stuff I usually toss away.
High resolution Flomm game imagery – and a large pile of Flomm swag (from stickers to bookmarks) – are also part of the show. Other games featured include The Banner Saga, The Dream Machine, Flower, God of War, Journey, Katamari Damacy, Metamorphabet, NaissanceE, Okami, Passage, Spate, among others.
A Palette of Pixels: The Evolving Art of Video Games runs 21 October thru 13 December 2015 at the Art Gallery at the College of New Jersey, AIMM Building, 2000 Pennington Road, Ewing, New Jersey – with a lecture and concert planned for Friday 30 October 2015.
Details here. A catalogue is also available, contact the gallery for more info.
Many thanks to Emily Croll, Christ Ault and their team for finding FLOMM! and displaying our work. Anyone who takes snaps, please tag @flommus and we’d love to repost.
—steve mehallo
Flommist Steve Mehallo is a graphic designer, illustrator, font designer, educator, foodie and gadfly. He is the creator and founder of FLOMM!
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