Grand Theft Memory
A photo and video work that tests what happens when a place is first learned through a videogame and only later encountered in person.
Grand Theft Memory is a small photo and video work built from an uneasy overlap between virtual exploration and physical travel. After spending time inside the world of Grand Theft Auto V, May visited Los Angeles and found himself arriving at places he had never physically seen but already seemed to know. The work centres on Santa Monica Pier, where a recreated in-game pose is set against a corresponding photograph taken on site.
The key tension is not between real and fake, but between two kinds of memory that refuse to stay separate. The game supplies orientation, expectation, and misplaced familiarity before any direct encounter takes place. That slippage sits close to the centre of May’s practice, where technological images do not merely document experience but actively condition it.
Additional notes
- Developed in 2016 after several visits to Los Angeles following earlier exploration of the city through Grand Theft Auto V.
- The work brings together a location photograph and a corresponding in-game reconstruction made after returning to England.
- Video documentation: Grand Theft Reality on YouTube.