It's In The Game (Sondra Perry, 2017)

Thanks to my friend James Hansen, I got to see the video portion of Sondra Perry's multimedia installation It's In The Game, which is an impressive piece of social criticism. As the debate rages on about the regulations of the NCAA, in particular the stipulations that student athletes remain strictly amateur and draw no compensation for their efforts, Perry's piece examines a very specific component of this problem. It addresses the unauthorized use of college basketball players' likenesses in video games by EA Sports, and how the athletes reached a $60 million settlement against the company in a class action lawsuit.

It's In The Game begins with photographs from the private collections of various athletes, serving as the backdrop for bright blue sculptures that represent various objects of plunder from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the British Museum. Screwed-and-chopped R&B plays over the images. Once the video gets going, we observe Georgia forward Sandy Perry going through the roster on EA and identifying all the players on his team, and saying a bit about them. We also see a 3D computer animation template (probably not EA's) for a generic "black basketball player" body, and then visit the museums in question.

I cannot be certain how It's In The Game plays within its intended installation context. As a video, Perry brings together several unique areas of discourse. The connection she makes between the theft of the players' identities and that of the artifacts from various African and Pre-Columbian cultures is an astute and suggestive one. At the same time, It's In The Game often underlines and exaggerates its points in an unnecessary way. It's an artwork that doesn't seem to trust its audience to put two and two together.

You can watch it here.