Don't let the T-rex get the children

1999

Video projection

6min.

A smiling child looks directly at the camera above him. The shot slowly widens up, revealing an unbearable situation of incarceration.
The author, Maria Marshall, is known for her films in which childhood is irremediably sucked into the harsh reality of adulthood.

Don’t Let the T-Rex Get the Children perfectly illustrates this theme. The feeling of disturbing strangeness that the video artist often strives to create in viewers is again at play here: to the naivety of the title and the child's smile correspond the silence of the video and the underlying violence of the situation, i.e. captivity. In addition, the film direction is meticulous and extensive work has been done on framing and light, questioning the deceitful appeal of images.

Held in the Pinault Collection, the video Don’t Let the T-Rex Get the Children was presented in the group show À Triple tour. Collection Pinault at the Paris Conciergerie, in 2013.
Exhibitions