A rare collection of digital trading cards by artist Ben Wheele. Using CGI animation, Wheele constructs a fantastical world of sinister creatures and digital hybrids available for your ownership. The collection attempts to reinterpret the sparkling, holographic nostalgia of 80s-90s trading cards. Wheele’s work is often found lurking in the "dark side of YouTube," a little-known zone of mysterious videos, which generate all sorts of conspiracy theories and terrified reaction videos online. This series began life as a short animation that replicates the style of a WatchMojo ‘Countdown’ video to explore how viral memes evolve. Using a cast of fictitious or impossible animated characters, Wheele explores the weird psychosocial materiality of being ‘always online’.


About Ben Wheele

Ben Wheele (b. 1987, Ditchling) is a computer animator, visual artist and Youtuber based in the UK. He graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2011. His animated films have been screened at festivals internationally including Annecy, Pictoplasma, London Intl. Animation Festival, Rotterdam Film Festival and Stuttgart ITFS. His work has been exhibited at The Sunday Painter London and Casino Luxembourg, Gazell.io digital art space, and broadcast on Adult Swim and Channel 4 (UK).