Critical Review
This ceramic mosaic from 2012 is a limited edition of 200 from Invader’s Invasion Kits series. The rectangular mosaic is made of 108 small mosaic tiles and depicts one of Invader’s iconic Space Invader characters, whose presence across different urban environments has become synonymous with the artist’s intervention. Laying against a dark grey background, a white Space Invader stands centrally in the composition, one eye blue and one eye red.
As the title suggests, the Invasion Kit references the polarised 3-D glasses used in cinemas to bring the movie into the audience’s real space, giving the appearance of height, width and depth to the movie still for a more immersive viewing experience. In a way then, this Invasion Kit is but one of many of Invader’s experiments with the new modes of seeing arising in response to the development of the digital.
His Space Invader characters gesture towards the dissemination of 8-bit and low tech aesthetics and the reconfiguration and abstraction of the way in which viewers experience images in the early years of digital imagery. Adding to his inquiry, this Invasion Kit also attests to Invader’s engagement with the manifold developments of digital technology and its ramifications and implications on art and the way people see images.
