The exhibition consists of two new works, the film installation False Future - that takes up the story of Louis Le Prince, the little-know inventor who developed a motion picture system at least 5 years before the Lumiere Brothers - and the video projction Everything I Need.
Murray Guy is proud to present Matthew Buckingham’s fifth solo exhibition at the gallery. The exhibition will consist of two new works, the film installation False Future and the video installation Everything I Need. Additionally, between March 28 and April 6, Creative Time will present Matthew Buckingham’s film installation Muhheakantuck – Everything Has a Name, 2003, aboard a New York Water Taxi on the Hudson River.
False Future, 2007 takes up the story of Louis Le Prince (1842–1890), the little-know inventor who succeeded in developing a working motion picture system at least five years before the Lumière Brothers. Had Le Prince not mysteriously disappeared while traveling from Dijon to Paris by train in 1890 he would most likely be known today as the originator of cinema. False Future speculates on this false-start in the history of filmmaking, focusing on the drives and desires that lie behind the invention and reception of moving images.
The title comes from the French verb tense, ‘faux future,’ often employed in history-writing and voice-over to knowingly ‘anticipate’ the actions of historical figures by narrating the past as if it is imminent or yet-to-happen, placing the reader or listener in the present tense of the time-period in question. In the case of Le Prince, the phrase ‘false future’ also refers to a present that never was, to the influence over filmmaking that Le Prince never had. Echoing descriptions of Le Prince’s workroom, the installation displays a ten-minute film that restages one of the four eight-second long films Le Prince is known to have made. We see a static shot of street- and foot-traffic on the Leeds Bridge in Leeds, England, while a French-speaking voice relates and speculates on the events of Le Prince’s life. The film is subtitled in English.
opening march 1 2008
Murray Guy Gallery
453 West 17 Street - New York
Free admission