The latest video by Bassam Al-Sabah, I Am Error (2021), on view at the independent art space Gasworks in London, until September 19, is deliberately unreal. A male character, vaguely resembling a video game avatar, floats in a glossy sea that has the perturbing consistency of sticky jelly and the transparent colour of water viewed from below. He tumbles and twists about, but can’t seem to extricate himself from the viscous mess.
Like all of Al-Sabah’s work so far, I Am Error is steeped in CGI, and its video game-like avatars play out feats beyond superhuman strength. The Iraqi-born artist works with CGI “like a painter”, he says, moving scenarios of combat and struggle towards languorous, disturbing stories that luxuriate in odd textures and surreal transformations, with searching, almost lost characters.
It demonstrates a fascination with the theme of violence, which seems to have…
