| NEW YORK, CRITICS PICK MATTHEW BUCKINGHAM MURRAY GUY GALLERY 453 West 17th Street November 10 - December 22 The eighteenth-century pseudo-science of physiognomy, developed by Johann Caspar Lavater, provides the overriding theme for Matthew Buckingham's new film installation and book, collectively titled Subcutaneous. Buckingham traces the relationship between Lavater and various Enlightenment thinkers—including the young Goethe and the German physicist and satirist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg—who responded, often with derision, to the theory that a person's facial characteristics form a map to the personality. As in previous projects, Buckingham's research is wide-ranging but seemingly unsystematic. Narrative clues emerge as disjointed fragments. In the film, actors portray the historical figures describing their personal and professional connections and reading from their original texts. In the book, the focus shifts to the facades of buildings inhabited at different moments by the protagonists, thereby questioning the notion that historical sites are capable of divulging significant information about their former occupants. He skims the surface of a discredited idea to highlight its features and expose its flaws but raises important questions about the veracity of historical knowledge as well. Gregory Williams |
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| Eyes Wide Open, 2002 |