Fight for america!

What about america is worth fighting for?

Created by Neal Wilkinson and Christopher McElroen, with game design by Alessio Cavatore (Warhammer 40k) and developed with the insight of former U.S. Capitol Police Officers, the work is conceived as an art object brought fully to life through gameplay.

The installation features a 1:64 scale model of the U.S. Capitol, 10,000 hand-painted 28mm miniatures, and integrated video and sound drawn from January 6. Once daily, up to 20 players command opposing factions — RED vs. BLUE — on a sprawling 30’ x 30’ board, guided by a Game Master in the persona of Uncle Sam. Observers watch as the game unfolds in real time.

When not in play, Fight for America! stands as a sculptural tableau — a detailed, living snapshot of a nation on the edge — inviting visitors to move through the space, study its details, and reflect on the unresolved tensions of January 6th.

Following its London premiere in June 2025, we are preparing U.S. presentations in Washington, D.C. (January 2026), Boston (Spring 2026), and New York City (Fall 2026).

Fight for America! has garnered widespread national and international attention, with syndicated features in NPR and The Washington Post, alongside CNN, Slate, and The Observer.

Artist statement

Fight for America! was created in response to the growing gamification of American politics — the reduction of democracy to a zero-sum contest of winners and losers. But democracy is not a finite game to be conquered; it is an infinite one, sustained only by the willingness of its people to keep playing, to keep expanding the field, and to keep striving toward greater freedom, equality, and justice.

Yet today, the idea of an infinite America is under threat. Too often, it is treated as a prize to seize, an ending to impose, or a scoreboard to dominate. When politics becomes a zero-sum game, the principles meant to unite us are reduced to strategies for defeating the other side.

This work invites viewers to step into a reimagined January 6, 2021 — not to reenact, but to engage. Through scale, tactical gameplay, and participation, Fight for America! makes visible the mechanics of power, the seductions of competition, and the costs of a win-at-all-costs mentality.

By asking participants to inhabit roles that may challenge their own beliefs, the work creates space for reflection: What does it feel like to defend the Capitol? To breach it? To make strategic choices with consequences for others? These questions are not abstractions — they are the living tensions of a democracy that must be continuously renewed.

Fight for America! is both artwork and civic space, built to hold the complexity, discomfort, and dialogue that an infinite game demands. It insists that America’s promise is not secured by those who claim to have “won” it, but by those willing to keep playing and fighting for a shared future.

Press Quotes