Left. Label at the room about ASCENT, by Simon Denny, in the exhibition Founders Paradox. Christchurch Art Gallery. Te Puna o Waiwhetu. 2019
Exhibition of ASCENT in the USA.( on line image)
The origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt. Capitalist Realism. A book by Mark Fisher. Consequently purchased to read.2019. #
Above Right. Two morre Illustrations for the Art Work Founder's Paradox (Michael Lett Gallery, Christchurch Art Gallery and Cleveland Art Gallery. 2017. 2018/2019) The illustrations were quickly drawn by Denny for the display area. He posited some taut research into play in a well established board game, The Game of Life, a German Board game, revamped in Germany in 1997( see more images and a game history reference on this below) *
Excerpt from a wall illustration by Simon Denny. "Founder."* Photograph by Stephanie Beth. 2018. See below.
https://simondenny.net/the-founders-paradox/
Keeping up with artist Simon Denny 2025 1
Denny is an artist who explores Technology and commerce with conceptual Art
Below. Simon Denny created this illustration in a room bay. This was a third room in Founder's Paradox. The Game of Life.
# Mark Fisher committed suicide in 2017
. Optimism. (online image) A commission for Simon Denny by Auckland Art Gallery. 2023 Space Models and Augmented VR.

A commercial box cover. The Game of Life. MB.
Commercial Board Game. The Game of Life. Germany. c 1997
History The Game of Life board game first designed in 1860 by Milton Bradley *
A Simon Denny spoof illustration of the board Game The Game of Life, part of in his commissioned Art Gallery assemblage, Founder's Paradox. (2017,2018/2019) Photographs by Stephanie Beth at Christchurch Art Gallery. 2019
CHAPTERS
The tone for chapters here in this eBook ( chapters 1 and 2) derive from some of my early thoughts about Art invited into Art institutions. Some of this as perambulations of New World order reckoning with the ends of World War I, World War II and after 1989, aka end of Cold War, and the war landscapes of today. Observations about games come abreast alongside dialogue on power, optimism and realism in forms of ribaldry. Other ideas thread the life of humans into the imagined and curious world of awe, care and wonder.
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ART BITE ON ASCENT. I discuss one of the assemblies within Founder's Paradox (2018/2019 ) It is the modded Board game Ascent(2017) Art Bite 2018 about Simon Denny research and creativity.**
** Descent: Journeys in the Dark is a two to five player high fantasy dungeon crawl published by Fantasy Flight Games in 2005. Descent was designed and produced by Kevin Wilson. The game is based on an improved version of the mechanics of FFG's licensed Doom: The Boardgame. Wilson received a B.A. in Cognitive Science (Artificial Intelligence) from U.C. Berkeley in 1997, and was active in the interactive fiction community at the time. He wrote several works of interactive fiction — including Once and Future and The Lesson of the Tortoise — and founded the annual Interactive Fiction Competition and the Internet magazine SPAG. GAME OF LIFE Much like Monopoly – which began as a tool for illustrating the evils of capitalism, but ended up demonstrating how fun it is to render your friends and family destitute – The Game of Life has sold millions of copies thanks to some crucial ways in which it isn’t like real life. For a start, it’s socially acceptable to ignore moralizing and set about winning. Then, when it’s finished, you tidy up the pieces, redistribute the spoils and start again. All losses are temporary, all victories inconsequential
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