Matthew Ritchie explores the complex nature of the universe and the intricacies of the human experience, integrating science, philosophy, religion, fiction, and mythology into multimedia installations that create elaborate systems of information modeling internal and external worlds. These systems originate in straightforward and primitive units that increase in complexity as they are combined, essentially forming miniature universes.
For Ritchie’s FWM exhibition, he transformed the gallery space with several new works, including The God Impersonator, a large, jigsaw-puzzle-like floor mosaic, which represents the artist’s complex, ever-growing narrative. As visitors entered the exhibition, they were invited to choose a card from an artist-designed deck. No ordinary playing cards, these depicted various imaginative characters such as “The Strong Force/Gluons” and “Aratron/Arthur King/Archaea/Creation.” The playing cards served as admission to a digital craps game and installation, Proposition Player.
In addition to The God Impersonator and Proposition Player, FWM also presented Ritchie’s work Clinamen (2004), a single-channel animation projection that is the prototype for a total animated environment, coproduced by FWM.
