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The Matrix Effect (2000)
Christian Jankowski
Christian Jankowski, invited to Hartford, decided to make the 25-year old history of the Matrix exhibition the starting point for his project. His concept was to make a video that would playfully collide two decidedly different narrative genres: historical documentary and fairytale. Jankowski set about gathering interviews with Matrix founder Jim Elliott and between the long-time curator of Matrix, Andrea Miller-Keller and some of the artists who had participated during her distinguished tenure.
The artists were sent a series of questions particular to their Matrix exhibition, to which they responded in writing or by telephone. A script was devised based on these interviews. All the participants are played by children between the age of seven and ten. Hence, The Matrix Effect - a supernatural transformation whereby commitment to new art and ideas stimulates a radical age reversal. Eternal youth is not the only Matrix Effect. Surprising transformations occur as the sophisticated concepts and language of the artists are interpreted and spoken by the children. Matrix Effect creates a series of ‘impossible‘ transformations that are nevertheless consistently pursued. The artists become children, the documentary becomes fiction, the historical becomes contemporary, humour pervades the work as it once again masks an underlying performance anxiety. For Jankowski, it is only through acts of creative misunderstanding that we come to perceive the uncanny power of The Matrix Effect.
(Extracts from Nicholas Baume: Artists, critters and curators,
Exhibition at Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartfort, USA 2000)
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Video still from Christian Jankowski,
The Matrix Effect (2000) |
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