Sondra Perry
It’s in the Game ‘17
16:20 min

It’s in the Game departs from a legal action against the videogame developer EA Sports and the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) by basketball players for using their digital profiles in a videogame without their consent.

Initially, EA Sports denied any correlation between the real life players and the digital avatars, but in It’s in the Game, Sandy Perry, one of the players and the artist’s twin brother, clearly recognises his teammates and himself in the videogame. In the court case, the NCAA claimed that the players’ scholarships meant that they were not entitled to any share of the profits. Sondra Perry compares this to how large museums have built their collection on looted objects from former colonies. By drawing this parallel, Perry makes us consider more recent forms of colonialization – a kind of digital variant – where the exploited are left watching a virtual copy of themselves, produced and profited on by large corporations.

Sondra Perry (b. 1986) is an American artist based Perth Amboy, New Jersey. It’s in the Game ’17 was commissioned by the Institute of Contemporary Art i Philadelphia and Henie Onstad Kunstsenter for the exhibition Myths of the Marble (2017).

This artwork is part of the online exhibition CADS #2: The Game of Life (15 April - 11 May 2021)