Enter the Matrix: Conversation with Lyndon Barrois Sr. and Lilly Wachowski
Join visual and VFX artist Lyndon Barrois and filmmaker Lilly Wachowski for a conversation on the Matrix trilogy, its legacy of visual effects, world building, and storytelling in the cyberpunk genre.
Presented in conjunction with the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures' PST ART: Art & Science Collide exhibition Cyberpunk: Envisioning Possible Futures Through Cinema.
Lilly Wachowski is a trans woman and lifelong Chicago resident. She holds a half-finished BA as well as an almost completed Post Baccalaureate certificate from SAIC. Lilly has worked as a Building Maintenance Technician’s Assistant, a self-employed carpenter, and a Writer/Producer/Director for Warner Bros., Netflix, and Showtime, among others. She also paints; sometimes, she paints ducks.
Lyndon J Barrois, Sr. is an artist, animation director, filmmaker, and an AMPAS VFX Executive Branch member. Lyndon boasts a long career in art and animation. His film credits include The ... Matrix Trilogy, Happy Feet (2006), and The Thing (2011), where he directed pivotal character animation sequences in those features and many others. He currently wins accolades for his unique gum wrapper sculptures and stop-motion animations of contemporary and historic figures and events, whose portrait and Sportrait films are produced entirely on iPhones.
Within the art world, his work has been featured in major institutions like the Pérez Art Museum Miami, the MOCA Los Angeles, the Massachusetts MOCA, The Hammer, the SFMOMA in San Francisco, and most recently added to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s permanent collection, and the SR Foundation in Seoul, Korea. His subject matters range from gender inclusion and excellence in the FIFA World Cup and Olympics, America’s Covid-19 crisis, to past racial uprisings and achievements, and current political or social climates.
A New Orleans native and HBCU graduate of Xavier University of Louisiana, Lyndon serves on the boards of The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, California Institute of the Arts (his MFA Alma mater), YA/YA (Young Aspirations/Young Artists), Inc., the Academy Museum’s Inclusion Advisory Committee, the Smithsonian’s Regents Advancement Committee, and a member of the Black Trustees Alliance, fostering programs and supporting exhibitions.
