Matthew Buckingham
For Matthew Buckingham, the history of Madison does not begin in 1836, when it was declared the state capital, or in 1856, when it was chartered as a city. Buckingham’s film installation, entitled Behind the Terminal Moraine, explores the dramatic retreat of the grand glacier that left behind deposits of minerals, soil, and water that characterize the landscape of this city. The 16mm film shows us images of the narrow isthmus and the lakes suspended in the snowy freeze of winter. Interspersed are the voices of three children, all from the third grade, when state curriculum mandates units on the history of Wisconsin or Madison. The children tell tales of how they have learned about the recent and distant past of this area–how it was once known as Taychopera, or the land of four lakes, and is now known as Madison, after the American president James Madison who had no direct connection to the city.
In Buckingham’s installations, he often works with the traditional narrative of an area, such as the Hudson River Valley or rural New Hampshire, and recreates it as one way to uncover necessary facts about the past but also the apparatus that hones and structures history.