The sad nostalgia of obsolete vintage video games dominates Payne’s show. Control panels from old arcade games are overlaid on mirrors, removing their functionality and identity. What remains are fun, abstract bursts of colour that risk feeling as disposable as the old Atari and Amiga games they’re inspired by. Payne’s untitled video piece at the end deals with the same themes of obsolescence better. In a heavily reverbed play on Steve Reich’s phasing technique – where two identical sound pieces go slowly out of sync – twin sets of TVs autoplay a video game as twinned fans, doubled record players and doppelganger plants frame the scene like a sad eulogy to forgotten passions.
Eddy Frankel