How do Matthew Ritchie’s art pieces The Dead: Belphegor and Proposition Player differ from one another?

The most obvious way in which these two pieces differ from
one another is in medium and scale.  Proposition Player is a huge
installation exhibition originally designed for the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary
Art.  The installation contains drawings, paintings, and projected images that fill the
entire space. Parts of the exhibition are present on the floors, on the walls, suspended
above the floor, and on various interactive pieces throughout the space.  It is one of
those really massive pieces of art, and rightly so, because, Matthew Ritchie is trying
to create his own manifestation of the entire
universe.

The Dead: Belphegor, on the
other hand, is only one drawing that measures 54 x 36 inches.  It is not a small piece,
but in terms of scale it is nothing compared to Proposition Player.
It is made with ink and graphite on a type of plastic called Denril.  Some of
the pieces in Proposition Player contain similar imagery: swirls of yellow and brown
ink, and protruding eyeballs that appear to be growths of some sort; but the main
difference between the two is the presence of the
figure.

After he was done creating the massive
Proposition Player, Ritchie felt that the next logical step was to
move to figuration.  There were some figurative elements in Proposition
Player, but the pieces in his next body of work, which includes The
Dead: Belphegor, contain figures that are much more recognizable.  He felt
that to make sense of his ideas about the universe, the next logical step was to give
them a body, so he could portray them doing things that his viewers could
understand.

In Proposition Player
there is an interactive element that The Dead: Belphegor definitely
does not have.  The viewers of Proposition Player were totally
immersed in the space, walking around it, looking in all directions at it, and
participating in games that were part of it.  This was all done with the intention of
simulating the universe and making the viewer think of the role they play in
it.

To see parts of Proposition Player
and other works by Matthew Ritchie go to the PBS Art 21 page below.  He is the first
artist interviewed after the introductory segment.

href="http://video.pbs.org/video/1239615688">http://video.pbs.org/video/1239615688
.