Escape Pod, Trailer from Jonathan Monaghan on Vimeo.
Installation view: Jonathan Monaghan. Escape Pod, bitforms Gallery. Courtesy of the artist.
In the continuous shot of Jonathan Monaghan’s latest film Escape Pod, a racing golden deer eventually makes its way into a majestic vessel; like his other films, the story is left an open-ended enigma in suspense. Always working in 3D animation, his work often depicts a post-capitalist dystopia devoid of human presence, with the hint of a mysterious scheme involving the viewers. Fusing elements from science fiction and luxury lifestyle, these glossy, antiseptic environments seem on the verge of falling apart into total self-destruction. The guilty pleasure of watching these films, in the end, makes of every viewer an addict, a partner in crime.
Jonathan Monaghan. Escape Pod. 2015, computer animated HD film, 20 minute seamless loop. © Jonathan Monaghan. Courtesy of the artist.
Jiayin Chen (JC): What’s “Escape Pod”?
Jonathan Monaghan (JM): In science fiction, an escape pod is a small vessel used to jettison from a larger ship in, like, emergencies. With my 20-minute computer animated film, Escape Pod, I was trying to reference this idea. Only, my customized escape vessels are designed for one-percenters intending to flee the earth as it falls to ruin..
Jonathan Monaghan. Mothership. 2013, computer animated HD film, 15 minutes. © Jonathan Monaghan. Courtesy of the artist.
JC: Why use 3D animation?
JM: I like to entice and seduce people into my worlds and the software is designed to create very seductive imagery, but typically with the intent to sell something or merely to entertain. It is an incredibly powerful tool for image making both moving and still. It allows an individual to compete with big-budget productions and the commercial industry, but with it I can do something more meaningful or more subversive, to appropriate the slick aesthetic seen in the commercial applications of this technology. Technology is an extension of us and our bodies, but it is also a force. It is self-perpetuating, continually building on itself. I think we have a lot less control of technology than we think we do. We tend to think of using computers or whatever else as a one-way interaction, but these devices operate back on us with equal force, affecting our identities and actions.
Jonathan Monaghan. Escape Pod. 2015, computer animated HD film, 20 minute seamless loop. © Jonathan Monaghan. Courtesy of the artist.
JC: The Mothership,secret powers, extraterrestrials… your work revolves around conspiracies. What are your inspirations?
JM: I think this is very much a reaction to the way in which power and authority operate today in the age of terror. For instance, with NSA spying, the idea that maybe our online habits or posts are logged somewhere alters our actions and choices when online. There is self-censorship with the web, and we aren’t fully aware that we do it. Kubrick is a big influence; he had this fantastic, subversive sense of humor to all his work. There was also this exciting perfectionism in all his films. Science fiction is wonderful for how it encapsulates our fears, desires, and anxieties about technology and the future. I play off this imagery but combine it with elements from our consumer culture.
Jonathan Monaghan. Mothership. 2013, computer animated HD film, 15 minutes. © Jonathan Monaghan. Courtesy of the artist.
JC: And these bizarre Gothic ornaments in your films?
JM: I use ornaments from Gothic and Baroque architecture because they evoke power and authority, but there is also something very other-worldly or transcendent about those designs. It’s a nice metaphor for our relationship with technology.
JC: Your all-time favorites?
JM: Cronenberg’s The Fly, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Solaris (1972), Star Wars
Jonathan Monaghan (b. 1986) recently had his first solo exhibition in New York at bitforms gallery.
