V&A exhibition means Grand Theft Auto is art

WITH their images of bloodthirsty violence and scantily clad women, they have long been the domain of awkward adolescents and testosterone-driven young men in their bedrooms.

Now video games are to be at the centre of an exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum, which has previously been home to retrospective shows on the likes of David Bowie and the designer Alexander Mcqueen.

The exhibition, billed as the first show by a major international museum to explore video games, will examine the industry’s frequent portrayal of women as sexual playthings. In games such as Grand Theft Auto and Dead or Alive, women are often represented as highly sexualised characters.

Elsewhere, large scale installations and interactive experiences will allow visitors to explore the technology of today’s video games. The exhibition, to open next September, will look at all aspects of the industry – from groundbreaking design to “player communities”.

The V&A, which launched its 2018 programme highlights yesterday, described video games as “one of the most important design fields of our time”.