25 Years of Street Fighter @ Iam8bit

Street Fighter fans came out Friday to celebrate the Combo Attack: 25Years of Street Fighter show at Iam8bit gallery in Echo Park. Over 50artist contributed works paying homage to the video game which first released in the late 1980's. The evening concluded with a real life car-smash bonus round pinata which was quickly destroyed as the crowds pounced on its candy innards. Works pictured by Barnaby Ward, Aled Lewis, Gabe Swarr, Boneface, Teresa Pilar Huarte, Dan Matutina, Darick Maasen, Dan Hipp, Dave Crosland, Ken Wong, Señor Chips, Ed Kwong, Evanimal, Ethan Marak, Alex Chiu, Oliver Barrett and Mike Thacker/TwoRabbits.
- All photos by Shannon Cottrell.

Published on August 6, 2012
See All the Photos From the Show Here

Fighter's Anniversary: iam8bit's Combo Attack Art Show - 25 Years of Street Fighter
- Damion Julien-Rohman

I’ve always kept myself close to Street Fighter, throughout all its different incarnations. If you’ll excuse the cliche, it was the very first fighter I had ever played, and was what got me into the genre at first. I’m sure the folks that stopped by the iam8bit art gallery felt the same, as the studio opened its doors to a four week-long art show dedicated to Street Fighter’s 25th Anniversary. Besides a DJ spinning awesome remixes of classic SF themes, a quickie shop selling actual arcade cabinet title cards, and cosplayers galore (not to mention a poutine food truck), the real stars of the show were the art. Paintings and dioramas were up and hanging, even a gorgeous blanket dedicated to everyone’s favorite fire-breather. Middle of the night treated fans to a bonus round pinata car, though it was blown apart within the first two contestants. I couldn’t stand to hate however – the car did sprout Werther’s candy.

While at the event, I met Theresa Huarte, who was displaying an amazing mobile showing off the special moves of the Street Fighter II cast. After the show, she was kind enough to answer some questions about the piece and how she got into Street Fighter.

How did you decide on a mobile for your Street Fighter piece?  This is the second wooden mobile I’ve made. The first one I made was inspired by the moves and careful balance of break dancing. When invited to make a piece for this show, I was initially going to make a diorama.  After not quite feeling inspired enough on a specific diorama concept, I found that I kept imagining a Street Fighter mobile depicting each characters’ “power move”. The carefully balanced principals of break dancing are similar to martial arts. I also wanted the viewer of my piece to feel the real life movement of each character.

How long did it take to finish?

Revealing the time it takes to make a one-of-a-kind piece is always disappointing to an artist; as it only makes you tally the math on how little per hour your rate is going to be if it sells. so…. long enough that I won’t be making hundreds and selling them on Etsy, but short enough that I am glad to make special ones for gallery shows and custom requests:)

What’s your connection to the games (which ones do you/have you played the most)? We we’re the family that finally got an Atari when Sega Genesis was cool. So all of my memories consist of watching over my brother’s shoulder as he played the Street Fighter II arcade game.  We would each only get one or two quarters, so we had to spend them wisely. I remember watching everyone’s games before I finally spent my quarters so it felt like I got to play more times. And of course I loved getting to play Chun Li because she was a girl:)

You’ve got a ton of different art that you work on – any style you enjoy over the others? I try to always let the concept dictate the medium I work in.  My art varies just as my resources and facilities do.  I make all kinds of art for all kinds of purposes. It’s always been my goal to learn as many materials and building methods as possible so that whatever my mind thinks of I can confidently make real. Lately I’ve been very happy making captioned dioramas:)

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You can check out more of the event in the gallery below. I’ll be updating the page with video and more photos, so check back here soon. Combo Attack runs until August 19th.

Special thanks to Teresa for talking to us – you can find her online gallery here.