Elizabeth Desintaputri, Ascending Men, 2023

In Ascending Men, Elizabeth Desintaputri captures dozens of middle-aged white- collar workers in an unusual ascent next to the phallic Maze Bank Tower skyscraper in GTA V ’s Los Santos. By modifying the game to reverse the character’s movement — thus making them appear to defy gravity by falling upwards — the artist uses the game’s own editor for capturing and editing the scenes.This imagery evokes Richard Drew’s iconic photograph The Falling Man, which captured a man plummeting from the World Trade Center during the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York City.

However, in Desintaputri’s rendition, the men hang suspended in the skies of Los Santos, creating a visual paradox of fragile and transient figures caught in a perpetual existential fall. The depiction of these avatars stuck in space and time challenges conventional portrayals of masculinity and inner turmoil, suggesting the possibility of escaping mortifying bullshit jobs, as described by anthropologist David Graeber. Employing in-game assets and Rockstar Editor’s proprietary tools and effects, Desintaputri unveils a dimension of the virtual world that contrasts sharply with the original game’s narratives.

The bank and its NPC workers, typically entrenched in a narrative of capitalism, male dominance, power and the relentless pursuit of material wealth, are reimagined through a surrealist lens that delves into the intimate aspects of the game’s characters and the society they represent. Finally, Ascending Men serves as a metaphor for the broader societal disconnect felt by many in the corporate world, where the upward climb often leads not to fulfillment, but to a permanent purgatory where promises of happiness remain forever unfulfilled, only to be replaced by a tragic sense of personal failure.

More by Elizabeth Desintaputri: elizabethdesintaputri.com