Matthew Smith
Matthew Smith makes projects in sculpture, drawing, photography and video, which deal with fictionalised and idealised representations of nature and place.
His work explores human kind’s relationship to and philosophical distance from the natural world, rejecting the idea of one all encompassing original ‘nature’ in favour of infinite interpretations, copies and inventions of the natural. We value nature for its health and integrity over the artificial works of man, seeing it as real or authentic. It is though a human construct who’s meaning is not fixed and permanent but is created, altered and re-imagined again and again by successive generations to many different ends. His practice reveals and navigates a way through these myriad natures.
http://www.matthewjsmith.co.uk
Kathy Toth
My recent work has been inspired by Einstein’s ideas on General Relativity which I have gathered information on from Leonard Susskind’s lectures at Stanford university (available through youtube).
Train is a representation based on Einstein’s example on how all movement is relative. A passenger in a train due to set off from a platform is looking out the window of the train. The passenger will not be able to tell whether it is he/she starting to move or another train next to him/her.
The piece is a drawing animation consisting of a handmade charcoal drawing that has been photographed. Each frame has been photographed and then rubbed out, the next frame has then been drawn on top of the previous frame. The result is a drawing where all moving objects leave traces behind them. I have chosen to propose my piece Train in particular for the exhibition because it illustrates movement and travelling, two concepts which are often associated with temporality.
Steve White
White’s wall drawings and writings in ink on the walls of the gallery depict his everyday experiences, thoughts and feelings. Subjects range from news stories to ‘what’s for tea?’ and animal displacement theory consisting of animals in human situations with technology, laws and regulations enforced upon them which they find difficult to deal with in daily life. White’s style is graphic and illustrative executed with urgency, passion and commitment.
‘I was told when I was younger that I could be anything I wanted to be. A fireman, policeman, even president it seemed. But like many kids growing up on a steady diet of wild west films; I wanted to be the loan cowboy roaming the west and fighting evil and corruption wherever I found it. And in my heart of hearts I still follow the remnants of that dream, wherever I go, into the setting sun.’ – Bill Hicks
White is a fine artist, author, poet, and curator, with a large body of work in various galleries, city walls, retail outlets, and filing cabinets not to mention cupboards in his studio.