Ahead of his solo exhibition at Vivid Projects in May, artist Antonio Roberts sat down with Dr Ian Sergeant for an in-depth discussion about his work, which you can listen to here.

‘A Boy is a Gun’ is an exploration of stereotypical roles within video games, black masculinity and the artist’s own experiences of growing up as a black British boy and teen. These themes are explored through the vehicle of the character Skate, from Streets of Rage 2, reimagined by Antonio to better reflect his own life. In this body of work, Roberts blends a gaming world with an all too real experience.

The exhibition featured a playable video game, a choose your own adventure book, over 50 animations featuring Skate in real locations photographed by the artist, a text-based video, the conversation with Ian Sergeant, and a real life appearance from Skate in the form of a cosplay by Roberts, even down to the roller skates.