Mat Chivers
Through making sculpture, installation and drawing I am looking at some of the moments of process and states of flux that exist below the surface of things. These often unseen, fundamental phenomena can occur over very different timescales to our own, but all ultimately exist in relationship to us.
A factor that I recognise as conferring a vital, visual and conceptual tension to the work is that it alludes to ideas of mutability and transience through materials that are often conceptually, culturally and historically bound up with notions of permanence and tradition. The work is not about ideas of beauty per se, almost despite the often seductive surfaces or the manner in which processes are presented. Redolent of creative dissolution as much as it is of instances of growth and expansion - the work can be seen as being an exploration of imagined landscapes as well as external events – these dichotomies and paradoxes are central to the work.
Alongside my studio practice, I work in collaboration with other artists, architects, design teams and local communities to realise projects that result in the evolution of sculpture in the context of either natural or built environments. I am particularly interested in working towards projects - developing sculpture based on an understanding of site ecology – that result in work that is embedded in its surroundings. I am currently involved in an ongoing project in association with research scientists from the University of Bristol.