Looking Back and Beyond: ‘The X-Files’ and the Chris Carter Collection

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The Chris Carter Collection runs through March 10 at Legacy West Media in Los Angeles

I first became aware of The X-Files after seeing the weekly ads for the show during its initial run in the TV Guide. Takes you back, doesn’t it? 

I hadn’t really thought much about aliens at the time, and although a child of Star Wars, science fiction wasn’t something I clamored toward in television, and yet, these two figures in these promotional materials, mysterious and inviting – Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, intrigued me.

A huge awards show junkie since my teenage years, I was watching the Golden Globes in 1995 to see if Pulp Fiction might beat Forrest Gump when The X-Files won Best Drama. I was shocked to say the least, but I knew at that moment I had to watch the show eventually.

Some time passed, and the show was now in its third season. The TV Guide had an article about an email mailing list of David Duchovny fans called “The Duchovniks” which I quickly joined. I professed to the group my desperate desire to see the first two seasons, and before I knew it, I had traveled miles away to pick up bootleg copies of the show on VHS tape from another Duchovnik/XPhile (that’s what we called ourselves back then, or were dubbed so in the press, hard to remember). I took the tapes home to my parents’, and I quickly binged them all before binging was even a thing. Days later, mesmerized by what I had seen – a combination of alien conspiracy and stand-alone monster of the week episodes, all told in such a realistic way and with an always present and electric chemistry between the two leads that went well beyond romance, I showed up to my University and changed my major to Theatre, knowing that I wanted to do what the people who were making “The X-Files” did. 

Fast forward to 2024, when I got an email about the Chris Carter Collection at Legacy West Media here in Los Angeles, Carter was described as “an avid surfer and continuous artist.” That phrase took me back to a time when Carter was less solely synonymous in my mind as the creator of the The X-Files, and back to when he was a wavy haired, late 30s surfer from Bellflower, CA responsible for this new show on Fox about aliens. The fact that he was an artist beyond the screen was something that had somehow escaped me all these years! 

I knew I had to go because I needed to know more about this person who had created a phenomenon that changed the course of my life. What better way to discover more about Chris Carter, than through his personal art. What should be no surprise to anyone who followed the Mythology of The X-Files with a fine toothed comb, a bit of frustration and in my case, multiple spreadsheets – things may not be exactly as they seem.

I arrived at Legacy West Media where I was greeted by CEO and Founder, Jim Carter. He let me know right away that he was aware that I was a huge fan of the show, which relieved me as I was tiptoeing into this fantastic Boyle Heights art space as a writer of and about film/television.

Jim immediately eased my mind by telling me his incredible connection to Chris. “I have known Chris since I was an infant because his wife Dori is good friends with my grandmother. In my early twenties I became his personal trainer and worked for him on the X-Files reboot which was an incredible experience to learn from someone like Chris how to be a worker and leader. Seeing his work ethic and professionalism was invaluable to me as I was beginning my working life.”

Walking me through the exhibit, there were, of course, surfboards and memorabilia from the show, but there were also these incredible pieces that managed a simplicity with many layers, sometimes literally and figuratively.

One of the first pieces I saw was “My Crowning Achievement,” a Mixed Media on Foam Core that Carter created in 2014. On the surface it might serve as a moniker of accomplishment in gold leaf for a person who created one of the best shows of all time, and yet the eye sees very quickly behind the letters, in a wonderful pink, an image of Hello Kitty in the background. Discussing this unique combination, Jim and I had a very interesting conversation about the meaning of the piece that I won’t spoil here. Go see it for yourself and do your best to talk about it with Jim and your friends!

Moving on, I saw “more than meets the eye” come to literal life with pieces like “I Can See the Tetons,” which I literally couldn’t see at first until Jim pointed the mountain range out to me. Also, favorites of mine, “Xanax” and “Manic” which utilize one image from a view of a Malibu home of Carter’s, which I couldn’t help relate to the differing effects of both mania and a drug sometimes used to calm it on the psyche, told perfectly by Carter through color and photo manipulation. Make sure to look at the final photo at the bottom right corner for a potential clue to the meaning. 

In the 2nd room of the collection we find more The X-Files and cinematic focused art. An original casting sheet with both David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson’s names along with actors who didn’t get cast is a highlight as is Carter’s director’s chair from the show, a slate from the reboot and a wonderful piece of art called “Extra Small” that utilizes a letter from a fan who had hoped to write an episode of the show, with Carter’s own actual script notes layered on top of it. Words upon words is a technique that shows up often in the collection.

It was in that second room, surrounded by memorabilia, that Jim and I began to talk about the impact of the show. We had both been watching it recently, him specifically to get in the mood of the collection and me watching the reboot to better understand a more recent Chris Carter to prepare for this piece. We both agreed that the show has managed to come into people’s lives right when it’s supposed to, whether it’s for the first time or a much needed revisit. 

Perhaps in regard to the most recent seasons, a little too early.

Watching seasons 10 and 11 in 2024, I was blown away by the almost creepy psychic premonition Carter had of our broken world to come. I am personally a huge fan of season 11 in particular, something I have loudly, if sometimes seemingly alone, shared for years as an OG fan of the series. The new mythology which was generally maligned at the time of its release (only slightly by me) takes conspiracy to a new level. I definitely struggled a bit with this shift in 2016, because at its core, The X-Files worked best when we wanted to believe along with Mulder. But who could have guessed that the central plot of Cancer Man’s manipulation – a tampered with vaccine that would control the population through an epidemic, would be sputtered by real life conspiracy theorists during a real life epidemic in 2020? When Scully uttered the phrase “PCR” in “My Struggle II,” I audibly gasped.

Then there is the most egregious plot twist of all, the retcon of William’s parentage in “My Struggle III.” I watched this moment again, with today’s eyes, with my mouth wide open, not because it was so unbelievable, but because, in today’s very fractured world, this level of invasion and horror feels all too plausible. Especially at the hands of a man we were told all along was evil. The Cigarette Smoking Man is supposed to represent the ultimate villain after all. 

Ryan Coogler is potentially taking a stab at the series for another run, supposedly without Anderson and Duchovny which means, no Chris Carter. When this was first announced I thought, why not give someone else a chance at the IP. 

But now I can’t help wonder what might be in store for us in the future as predicted by Mulder and Scully, written by Chris Carter. Maybe the world is in a better place than it was at the end of Season 11. Perhaps Mulder and Scully, their new child and William (I won’t even touch on that complicated family tree) are happy, continuing to tell stand-alone stories with less alien invasions at the core. We may never know. Yet, this XPhile always has hope.

Instead we can see what Carter has to say through his art. As I left the exhibit full of wonder, tinged with nostalgia I began to contemplate the meaning of much I had just seen. Talking to Jim about it, he said – “One of the mysterious parts about the exhibition is that Chris leaves it to the viewer’s interpretation… the meaning of each artwork. Much like the X-Files themselves, the story of the artworks leads us to conclusions but they are often not fully stated or revealed. When I asked Chris for further descriptions of the artworks and inspiration he wouldn’t reveal any backstory… only his wife knows the truth, but as he would say: “The truth is out there.”

The Chris Carter Collection runs through March 10. More info here: https://lwm.art/collections/the-chris-carter-collection