2021 | HANNAH EPSTEIN
DON’T HATE THE NPC, HATE THE GAME
MONTREAL
Nov 06 - Jan 22

Hannah Epstein

Don’t Hate The NPCs, Hate The Game

Growing out of a residency at Arsenal Contemporary Art Montreal in the summer and fall of 2021, Hannah Epstein's exhibition of textile works examines surveillance culture, hyperconnectivity, and the effects of ludocapitalism. Borrowing its vocabulary from video games and the web, Epstein's imagery speaks to the encompassing power of computers and our accelerating loss of agency amid the rise of artificial intelligence.

With wide eyes and a frenzied smile, Epstein’s installation of a shaggy, self-driving car commands the gallery space, auguring both excitement and danger. Atop the car, splayed in a brutal collision, is a Non-player character or NPC. In video game 

parlance, the NPC is a character devoid of agency, trapped in the game and destined to repeat the same words and actions interminably. Inside the car, a video created by electro-vivisection by a “dysfunction operator” produces intentional glitches.

Epstein emphasizes the productive nature of play, addressing what she refers to as the industrialization of pleasure and the belief “ that we are having fun, when every action is generating value for a larger data-revenue based company.” In a sense, we are the NPCs, complicit in our own captivity.

The handmade aspect of the works is itself a form of resistance to hyperconnectivity. In End Of The Species, the artist depicts a red electric wire, disconnected from the wall. Is this gesture of disconnection a catalytic moment or will the act of unplugging merely accelerate our end?

Video component created by Luis Hernandez.

*Non-player character.