Brunt Drama (2018)

double-sided HD video loop with sound,
frosted plexiglass, aluminum frame
47 3/8 x 71 3/8 x 36 3/8 inches
7 min. 30 sec. loop

Brunt Drama addresses the inherent violence of the real, the simulated, and the dubious pleasure of witnessing. In the loop, narratives of safety, risk, and use-value are tested via 3D-rendered, plastic surrogates. Choreographed motion-studies and textual, Brechtian vignettes produce alternative translations and behaviors, both acceptable and indecent. Brunt Drama manipulates the slipperiness of affect-inducing data visualizations intended to ameliorate fear into consumption — presenting a simulation of the unrepresentable, visible from both sides of the screen.


Installation views, Los Angeles Contemporary Archive. October 2018

 

                                                               
PRESS:
Lassner, Georgia. “Matthew Lax’s Brunt Drama,” X-TRA Contemporary Art Quarterly, Vol. 21, No. 3, Summer 2019. WEB / PRINT

Osberg, Annabel. “Three Artists’ Techno-futurist Dystopias,” AEQAI Journal. December 2, 2018.

^{Catscan, September 2008}