Eva und Franco Mattes, aka 0100101110101101.ORG, haben ein Jahr lang in der virtuellen Online-Welt Second Life verbracht – und dort das “Ich 2.0″ fotografiert. Annoying Japanese Child Dinosaur ist die Fortsetzung ihrer Serie: LOL, 13 Most Beautiful Avatars.
“Annoying Japanese Child Dinosaur” is Mattes never-before-seen series of portraits of Japanese children avatars. They have been living in Second Life for over a year, shooting thousands of photos. After a process of selection, the photo-portraits get printed on canvas in big format, bridging Virtual Life with Real Life. At times eccentric, weird, cute or eerie, these images reflect one of Second Life’s most lively subculture and aesthetics.
When ask to give an explanation of the enigmatic title of the exhibition the artists have referenced James Patrick Kelly’s novella “Mr. Boy”: “the tale of a genetically stunted 12-year-old” says Franco Mattes “who literally lives inside his mother, who has turned herself
into a three-quarter-scale model of the Statue of Liberty. And his best friend, Stennie, is a child-dinosaur”.
“Franco and me have always been very much into subcultures, like Cyberpunk, Skinhead, Hip-Hop, Punk and Hooligan” adds Eva Mattes “and Japan is the only place I’ve been where new subcultures are exploding: Gothic Lolitas, Ganguros and the whole Otaku and Kawai culture. So put all of this together and you get an explanation of the title. Sort of”.Mattes works in Synthetic Worlds include the well known portraits series “13 Most Beautiful Avatars” recently shown at Postmasters Gallery in New York – and the ongoing series of “Synthetic Performances”. Over the last months these portraits of avatars have been both acclaimed as “eerily effective as paintings” (Roberta Smith on the New York Times) and dismissed as nothing more than “a prank” (Julia Bryan-Wilson on Art Forum).” (Via Mail)
