A TIRED DOG IS A GOOD DOG
Matthew Lax
Artist-in-Residence
January 3 - 17, 2023
Matthew Lax is a quadruplet, artist, filmmaker and writer who lives in Los Angeles with his dog. Working through documentary, narrative and experimental filmmaking, Lax’s films focus on behavior and language, animality and queerness. Lax’s films and video installations have screened and been exhibited nationally and internationally with the Viennale (Austria), IHME Contemporary (Helsinki), MIX New York and MIX Brasil (São Paulo), table (Chicago), Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (LAMAG), Los Angeles Contemporary Archive (LACA), Human Resources LA, Everson Museum of Art (Syracuse, NY), REDCAT, Film Forum, Echo Park Film Center, The Drawing Center (New York), and CROSSROADS (San Francisco), among others. Lax’s organizational projects include those held at Anthology Film Archives (NY) and Human Resources LA. Lax’s writing has appeared in print and online publications including MARCH Journal, Los Angeles Review of Books (LARB), ArtPractical, and Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles (CARLA), as well a catalog contribution with the Lawndale Art Center (Houston, TX) and a limited edition zine with Inga Books (Chicago).
Automata Residency
Matthew devised new work with and for dogs, dog trainers and the pups of Pup Play, a queer social community where humans role-play as dogs. Drawing from his own upbringing as a quadruplet on a collie-breeding farm as well as the writings of Donna Haraway, Kafka, Cesar Millan and others, this long term project explores training, pack behavior, animality and queer family-building. While in residency, Lax and pups conducted workshops filming movement exercises, demonstrating pup/handler relationships and talking openly about what it means to "become animal" and wear a collar.
Website :: matthewlax.co
Instagram :: @laxinternational