Matthew Ryan Barton
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Work from The Affects of the Effects of Gravity.
Barton has work in a show opening at CS13 on April 15th, it will be well worth your time.
“…At the gallery entrance the wind rustles through a projected forest fronted by artificial turf upon which rest real log segments that serve as seats. An oversized cutout mushroom delivers an ambivalent message: It’s a poisonous amanita but also the white speckled red toadstool of fairy tales.
The visitor passes through an arch of (photographs of) deer antlers that’s studded with an eclectic mix of gem-bright flowers — morning glories, petunias, water lilies, cacti — that could be from a garden catalog.
To the right, a forest smoulders ominously in another projection.
And beyond, a vision engulfs the senses. Pushing out from the far wall are the hoodoos and other eroded earthen towers of Southwestern landscapes, backed by snow-covered mountains and, behind them, a floor to ceiling night sky of drifting planets, multitudinous stars and colorful nebulae.
An occasional orb floating past seems to have a face — a man in the moon extension of one’s imagination, it would seem, until one notices the grimace on a sandstone pillar or figural forms farther off.
And then something — meteorite or missile — streaks across space, strikes land and erupts in fire and smoke. More follow. Silver slivers of lightening flash and dart into the ground. The sounds of explosions replace those of crickets. Armageddon, or just dinosaur bad luck?
Absolute kitsch and absolute cool.
And especially appropriate in this filmmaking and screening venue.
With all of that in place, does “Affects” really need the cave of skulls, the weathered wood frontier shack embellished with bleached bones?
Not really. Unless Barton wanted to add to his spoof of the sci-fi genre takes on Westerns, horror and Indiana Jones-style adventure films in this funny and clever, site-suited extravaganza.
One wonders what he’s capable of pulling off next…” – Mary Thomas for Post-Gazette