Installation view The Founder’s Paradox; 2017.
Installation view The Founder’s Paradox; 2017.
Installation view The Founder’s Paradox; 2017.
Installation view The Founder’s Paradox; 2017.
Installation view The Founder’s Paradox; 2017.
Installation view The Founder’s Paradox; 2017.
Installation view The Founder’s Paradox; 2017.
Installation view The Founder’s Paradox; 2017.
Installation view The Founder’s Paradox; 2017.
Installation view The Founder’s Paradox; 2017.
Installation view The Founder’s Paradox; 2017.
Installation view The Founder’s Paradox; 2017.
Founders Board Game Display Prototype; 2017; Customised “Settlers of Catan” game pieces, 3D print, UV print on Butler Finish Aluminium Dibond, UV print on card, LEDs, moulded electronic wiring, Dell PowerEdge 1950 server casing, Linoleum, MDF, powder coated steel, Plexiglas: 120×103×103cm.
Fourth-Way Silhouette Twister wall weaving: Rule propositions; 2017; Custom woven cotton weaving, texts lifted from Max Harris’ The New Zealand Project, velcro, aluminum holder: 200×150×2cm.
Ascent Box Cover Projection; 2017; Royalpainting.com commissioned painting (oil on canvas), UV print on canvas, custom stretchers: 115×115×2cm.
Game of Life: Collective vs Individual / Das Spiel des Lebens Box Lid Overprint; 2017; UV print on unfolded Das Spiel des Lebens board game box lid: 65×45×1cm, UV print on unfolded Das Spiel des Lebens board game box lid: 65×45×1cm.
Installation view The Founder’s Paradox; 2017.
Installation view The Founder’s Paradox; 2017.
Installation view The Founder’s Paradox; 2017.
Installation view The Founder’s Paradox; 2017.
Installation view The Founder’s Paradox; 2017.
Installation view The Founder’s Paradox; 2017.
Founders/Settlers of Catan Box Lid Overprint; 2017; UV print on unfolded Settlers of Catan board game box lid: 45×45×1cm, UV print on unfolded Settlers of Catan board game box lid: 45×45×1cm.
Operation; 2017; Resin, Polystyrene, New Era Cap, Adidas Mesh long-sleeved t-shirt , Nike Free footwear, Acrylic paint, Gaming cable, Wood, Apple earbud headphones, Customised T800 Terminator 2: Judgement Day Figurine, Fidget spinner, iPhone 5, Kindle Paper, Various New Zealand coins, novelty “Bitcoin” ornamental coins, custom Lanyard, nootropic powder in plastic zip-lock bag, Nike Bootstraps, DLD hoodie, SMOK T PRIV vaporizer, large tweezers: 48×204×68cm.
Ascent Hero Portrait Projection (Angmar the Occupier); 2017; Royalpainting.com commissioned painting (oil on canvas), UV print on canvas, custom stretchers: 125×90×2cm.
Installation view The Founder’s Paradox; 2017.
Installation view The Founder’s Paradox; 2017.

Developed for an exhibition at Michael Lett Gallery in New Zealand (2017) and expanded across various venues since, The Founder’s Paradox uses games as a framework to reflect on competing visions of the future as the neoliberal status quo is questioned from both ends of the political spectrum.

Drawing on the popularity of board games, and resonant with game theory’s influence on the technology sector, The Founder’s Paradox explores competing utopian visions, remapped as board games with narratives from radical and influential texts: from libertarian super-investor Peter Thiel’s Zero to One on the one hand, to Oxford-based writer Max Harris’s indictment of neoliberalism, The New Zealand Project, on the other. The Sovereign Individual worldview is examined through “world-building” fantasy games, while more collectivist ideas like Harris’s are put into play via games that involve physical dexterity and cooperation. A riff on The Game of Life bridges the two, offering the choice between collective action and individual sovereignty at every fork.

Exhibitions