William Bacon

Paper on wood

73 x 73 x 73 cm

Loot Boxes are rewards within computer games that can be bought with real-world money. You purchase them without knowing what’s inside. Some such interfaces are similar to those of slot machines or scratchcards, designed to create a psychological response, increasing player anticipation and excitement as we open the box to see what’s inside. In this work, the artist is interested in how illusions of greener grass can happen in the digital world and have implications within the physical world. ‘Loot Box’ has a distorted appearance, as if dreamt into reality.  In times of hardship, we become increasingly vulnerable to the idea of winning big and cashing-out, attracted to objects that promise change, but at their core have no guarantee of a positive outcome; no closer to the freedom we were longing for.