love.exe
Australia, 2024
Jarra Karalinar Steel (Boonwurrung, Wemba Wemba and Trawlwoolway)
Digital video, sound, graphic pattern
Sound by Susan Maco Forrester
love.exe was commissioned by the City of Melbourne through Arts House as part of BLEED 2024
Courtesy the artist
Created using assets from Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios, 2023)
Inspired by fandom, love.exe (2024) explores how we can seek solace, validation – and love – in the digital realm.
Across three screens encased in a soft shrine of fabric, artist Jarra Karalinar Steel explores erotic encounters in adventure role-playing videogame Baldur’s Gate 3 (2023). Sexuality, games, and Steel’s signature Blak style collide.
Whether through a book or a screen, people have always sought fictional ways to explore the boundaries of their own desires, becoming the romantic lead they want to see. The interactive medium of a videogame offers new opportunities for self-representation.
Through these three screens, we get an intimate view into the artist’s desire on her own terms – a First Nations woman (Boon Wurrung, Wemba Wemba and Trawlwoolway) stepping into the role of a classic romantic heroine woman, without waiting for traditional media to create a role for her.
