And he comes close to succeeding. Feng's large, interactive installation at the Haggerty Museum is called Taking Mt. Doom by Strategy . Gallery-goers take mouse in hand, and to the accompaniment of a thumping techno soundtrack, fire away at the ballet dancers acting out the epic battle. A second screen allows viewers to watch the opera's scenes in any order they wish, displaying the plasticity of the past in art's hands. The third screen is out of the viewer's direct control, flashing images of the artist and various scenes from movies and games.
Mt. Doom fills the entire gallery with noise, music, quick-cut images.
It is, in a word, breathtaking. For people comfortable with the visual vocabulary of the video arcade, Mt. Doom is primarily fun to look at. And that's a great accomplishment for political art. Feng's video game is overtly political. Political art too often is the visual equivalent of self-help pabulum, merely hurling slogans.