Matthew Lax questions belonging, choice, and freedom in A TIRED DOG IS A GOOD DOG,
PART TWO (TD2, 2024), the latest chapter in his long-term psychosexual investigation of canine
and human behaviors initiated in 2020. A quadruplet himself, Lax’s intimate collaborators
include the artist’s family, who breed Collies; professional dog trainers; and members of the Los
Angeles and Paris pup play kink communities, in which humans role-play as dogs.
In this two-channel film, Lax negotiates the interpersonal and interspecies dynamics inherent to
pack-building, searching for individual and collective liberation by intertwining animal training
with BDSM. Lax learns on all fours, attempting to initiate himself into the pup community while
also ingratiating himself to a rescue dog who suffers from severe anxiety and PTSD.
Influenced by the dog writing of Donna Harraway, Cesar Milan, and others, TD2’s episodic
structure is also guided by excerpts from the 1982 erotic novella Les Chiens by Hervé Guibert, as
performed by the pups themselves. Translated to English for this film by Dana Lupo, Guibert’s
tale of a sadistic dom who chains up two subs in dog masks, provides a historical touchpoint for
the BDSM practices which inform contemporary puppy play. The shoot dissolves into a group
processing session about consent. Interviews about pack dynamics accompany training
sequences which unpack positive reinforcement as it relates to canine trauma responses and
decision-making, while domestic scenes on the family farm and elsewhere, depict the bonds of
love, care and mourning over the course of several animal life cycles, including that of the
artist’s own dog.
Probing home and husbandry, TD2 technically spans 4k video, original GoPro and 16mm
footage alongside traditional and 3D animations. Installed within a large dog kennel, viewers
must choose where to position themselves within a narrative that both disperses and reinforces a
power game in which Lax plays participant, subject, student, director, and editor.
The exhibition is accompanied by other studies and drawings developed over the course of Lax’s
research, including a motion-capture performance made with artist Caleb Craig, wherein Lax
becomes Lassie, the rough collie “dog star” of mid-century American film and TV.
An ongoing project, TD2 falls somewhere within performance and documentary, fantasy and real
life. Through Lax’s instigations, various familial, sexual, and animal values are activated as the
perspectives and needs of humans who “make” dogs, humans who train dogs, and humans who
play as dogs commingle and inform a social ethic based on the importance of sharing and sharing
alike.
On Thursday, November 14 at 7:00 pm, historian, writer and USC professor Andy Campbell will
join Lax for a public conversation and the release of THE HOUNDS OF LOVE HAVE GONE
NONVERBAL, the forthcoming zine-essay which accompanies TD2, published by Inga Books
(Chicago).
This project is supported in part by an Emergency Grant from the Foundation for Contemporary
Arts.
Matthew Lax is an experimental filmmaker, artist and writer working between Los Angeles and
New York. Lax’s films and video installations have been screened and exhibited at Viennale
(Austria), Rencontres Internationales (Paris), table (Chicago), Los Angeles Contemporary
Archive (LACA), and Winnipeg Underground Film Festival, among others. Lax’s curatorial
projects include those held at Anthology Film Archives, Human Resources, and Fellows of
Contemporary Art. Lax’s writing has appeared in publications including BOMB Magazine,
MARCH Journal, Texte Zur Kunst, and Los Angeles Review of Books (LARB). Lax is a
recipient of a 2024 Lightning Fund Grant from Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE)
and the Andy Warhol Foundation.
