After the Hako infection… The MATRICKS is a small paper tribute to the unmistakable world of The Matrix, filtered through the equally unmistakable Hako style. “Hako” means box in Japanese, and the name describes the idea rather well. Hako characters are built from a deliberately simple geometric vocabulary: a large box-shaped head, a compact rectangular body and blocky limbs, with very little attempt to reproduce realistic anatomy. Most of the character is therefore created graphically rather than sculpturally — through the face, clothes, colours and a few carefully chosen details printed onto flat surfaces. The result is somewhere between a paper model, a caricature and a tiny three-dimensional cartoon. The rigid geometry is part of its charm: complex characters are reduced to a handful of boxes yet remain immediately recognisable. Sunglasses, dark clothes, severe expressions and the visual codes of The Matrix adapt particularly well to this treatment. The MATRICKS plays with that contrast. The sleek, sombre and hyper-technological atmosphere of the film is transformed into a group of decidedly low-tech paper figures — cut, folded and glued from a few sheets of card. Perhaps the Matrix has not disappeared after all. It has simply been infected by Hako.
Leave a Reply