≠ (Antiparallel) | Arts + Literature Laboratory | Madison Contemporary Arts Center

≠ (Antiparallel)

Chris Maddox's “≠” (spoken Antiparallel) investigates shifts of meaning that occur when prose is translated. This study is built from two versions of The Garden of Forking Paths by Jorge Luis Borges: a version translated by Borges’ close creative partner Norman Thomas di Giovanni, and the recent Penguin Classics release, translated by Andrew Hurley. His works extract and recombine text fragments from these translations in ways that generate embodiments of the concepts embedded within the writing.

A central theme, evident even in the title of the story, is the notion that one might imagine a multiplicity of personal existences, each of which expresses a choice made in life that triggered a sequence of events and a particular existence–parallel but unique realities. Such paradoxical antiparallels are mirrored in the text-based works of the project.

Chance, instinct, fortune, regret, escape, and death are themes the exhibition folds together into an exposition on choice and outcome. Antiparallel explores how paths not taken may linger in the mind and form into persisting and mutating fantasies, ruminations, or narratives of desire and conquest. It explores the possibility that dreams are constructed entirely from the vapors of roads not taken.

Chris Maddox

Through artistic practice I investigate the motivations and correlations among various forms of contemporary escapist behavior, which I understand as necessary but often-abused means of identity work. I explore the nature of cultural and geopolitical boundaries, and the thresholds of and barriers to human perception of space and information. I work not in a particular style, rather I base each solution on the demands of a project’s objective or concept, and leverage my backgrounds in printmaking, drawing and painting, graphic design, photography and advertising, as well as project management, to produce multiple media art work. My recent work, which culminated in a series of three solo exhibitions titled Beneath the Underdog, Blunder Drawings, and Test Me, (see www.chrismaddox.com) corresponds to 21st century music culture, to crowd-sourcing, graffiti, and postmodern  conceptions of authorship, appropriation and... Read More

PLAN YOUR VISIT

Arts + Literature Laboratory is located at 111 S. Livingston Street #100, Madison, Wisconsin, 53703.

Our galleries are open Tuesday through Friday 10am-5pm and Saturday noon to 5pm, and other programs take place throughout the week. Please check the events calendar and education section for details.

CALENDAR

Sign Up For Our Newsletter

Stay up to date on upcoming programs and opportunities through our monthly newsletter.