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The hyper-mediated work of Christopher P. McManus is a barrage of visual information. \u00a0Paper mache puppets, hand-drawn animations, live action video and computer-generated filters are interwoven into short narrative or interactive pieces; the cumulative effect heightened by the characteristically saturated palette of 8 bit graphics.\u00a0 His over-the-top approach to art reveals a Do-It-Yourself mentality without the \u2018homespun\u2019 connotations. Melding technology with materials at hand, McManus is a visual hacker of sorts \u00ad\u2013 a bricoleur of the digital age.<\/p>\n

A balance of high-tech computer visualizations and low-tech puppetry, Christopher P. McManus\u2019s work offers us messy glimpses into the human condition \u2013 often quite literally.\u00a0 In \u2018Love Letter,\u2019 a man delivers Post-it note entreaties to his stomach.\u00a0 In sculptures like \u2018Alien Decapitation\u2019, a morbid trophy of an extraterrestrial kill is nonchalantly on display.\u00a0\u00a0 The abject appeal of the imagery has a nostalgic tinge, conjuring up the cute \u2018grossness\u2019 of Garbage Pail Kids.\u00a0 But the contrast between the physicality of McManus\u2019s handmade constructions and their digital backdrop also points towards a quintessential\u00a0post-modern \u2018alienation\u2019, a separation between the tangible body and the over-stimulated mind.<\/p>\n

His characters \u2013like \u2018Joan\u2019, an imperceptively animated gif, or \u2018Slime Model\u2019 a flippant clay figure \u2013 are post-human. Usually employed for spectacular cinematic effects, here CG and Claymation are used to render the mundane (or inane.)\u00a0\u00a0 The awkward characters are ambiguous and anticlimactic by default; they negate the very idea of hype.\u00a0 In this way, McManus uses the tools of illusion to reveal its tricks, but in lifting the curtain, he also invites the viewer to glimpse the man behind the images.\u00a0 These crude creations speak to a very human \u2018maker.\u2019<\/p>\n

In McManus\u2019s 2010 interactive project, \u2018Suburban Warlock,\u2019 the eponymous hero, Reggie, is on a quest is to save an abandoned strip-mall. In order to play the projected video, a sculptural staff has to be repetitively shaken by a gallery visitor.\u00a0 There is no skill involved in the act, just a commitment to continued movement.\u00a0 If the staff stops moving, the video resets to the beginning.\u00a0 The technologically frustrating set-up makes viewers complicit in the unfolding act of resurrection.\u00a0 In the process, they instigate the ritual sacrifice of a small creature.\u00a0 Their reward is the metastacized growth of big box stores repopulating the defunct mall.\u00a0 The visceral slaughter of the hairy creature is a seemingly small price to pay for the sanitized convenience of Kohls, BestBuy, JCPenney, and Applebees.<\/p>\n

Although referencing global consumerism, Christopher P. McManus\u2019s work is strikingly American in its over-the-top work ethic and maximal aesthetic approach. \u00a0The combined effect is the inverse of a fun house mirror reflection, revealing existing distortions within contemporary perception of the real.\u00a0 It is a fitting critique of the dominant brand of culture that the US exports.\u00a0 At the same time, it revels in an inalienable freedom, finding individualized voice amid the homogeneity of the corporate state.<\/p>\n

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The hyper-mediated work of Christopher P. McManus is a barrage of visual information. \u00a0Paper mache puppets, hand-drawn animations, live action video and computer-generated filters are interwoven into short narrative or interactive pieces; the cumulative effect heightened by the characteristically saturated palette of 8 bit graphics.\u00a0 His over-the-top approach to art reveals a Do-It-Yourself mentality without […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art-gallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2723"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2895,"href":"https:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2723\/revisions\/2895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ducts.sundresspublications.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}