“10048” by Ashley Anderson (click for a larger image). This scene, of course, is taken from the opening of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: The Manhattan Project for NES.

Unless you’re from Manhattan, you likely didn’t pick up that the title of this artwork was the zip code for the World Trade Center, whose twin towers you can see in this image.

The artist explains the 38.5 x 38.5-inch piece:

“I had been meaning to make this piece for about a year after I noticed the various background graphics from the screencaps I have in my image collection. I liked the idea of how pre-September 11th games now carry an unintentional political charge if they contain any images at all of the twin towers.

I am intrigued by how that kind of worldwide trauma even finds its way into the most innocuous corners of our experience. There’s a kind of echo that happens whenever we see images of the twin towers in old movies, photos, anything, even video games; it’s a kind of sad ‘well, there it is, we know what’s coming’. And that’s not even taking into account the active charging of such imagery after September 11th. My goodness, it’s quite a wallop in total!”

Buy: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games

See also: “Yin Yang” by Ashley A

[Via Ashley Anderson]

tags / ashley anderson / ashley a / fanart / world trace center / teenage mutant ninja turtles / the manhattan project / 9-11 / ec