1st April – 26th May 2011
110 Petersfield Avenue, Harold Hill, RM3 9PH
Matthew’s practice has a versatility that you might find in more of a design practice however this may be due to his work primarily using two main modes of investigation; research and design. His aspirations are to test static ideas of society and living, attempting to build a practice that is socially-responsible rather than self indulging. Past and current projects have attempted to question;
Urban town planning and architecture
Free information and publication
Education and advocacy
Food/eating and discourse and
Urban farming and gardening.
All of these could sit comfortably within a debate surrounding ideas of utopias, especially within a current/ post industrial age. Matthew’s projects always start with research, taking the history, architecture, function and character of local communities as their genus. Despite this site/town specific contextualisation ultimately the projects pause on global questions as well as civic ones. This see-saw between local and global has become central to matt’s practice. Matthew has an interest in invention and redesign however has no problem if similar projects have been explored before. Although his intention is not to duplicate he takes comfort in being part of a global community asking similar questions, seeing it almost as a collaborative process. As mentioned, context is important and as such the projects evolve each time they are shown. Ultimately they act as space for debate, education and relation.