Michael Workman

While it's no secret that this reviewer has a special place in his heart for new media and art made using the tools currently associated with gaming, it's rare that a single piece comes along to validate the passion. Even rarer still that anything significant should come out of the annual deluge of work that pours out of the annual BFA student exhibitions. But at this year's SAIC 2006 Undergraduate Exhibition at Gallery 2, Chris Reilly's cynically, awkwardly titled piece "Everything I Do Is Art, But Nothing I Do Makes Any Difference, Part II or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Gallery" has managed a splash. Adapted using the technology of the game "Half Life," Reilly took measurements and recreated the entire three floors of the entire Gallery 2 building as a gaming environment that visitors can wander around in as first-person players. Wielding any number of fantastical weapons in the vast arsenal of military-grade guns you're armed with, you can wander the building, blazing away at the current BFA exhibition until naught's left but a burning, bullet-riddled cinder. It's a kind of ideal method of commentary on the current status of art world youth mythologies embraced with all the zeal of militant jihadist. Completely satisfying and devilishly immersive, it's a shame that the show is up for only a few weeks. More information on Reilly and background on the game, including installation shots, are available through the artist's website at www.chris-reilly.org. While undergrad shows aren't contests, Reilly's piece would win the "awesome" prize. Even so, it's impossible for those whose taste doesn't extend to the realm of gamer art to not find something they like in the work of over 280 students on display.

"Everything I Do Is Art, But Nothing I Do Makes Any Difference, Part II or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Gallery" shows at Gallery 2, 847 West Jackson Boulevard, (312)899-5130, through April 14. (2006-04-04)

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