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Matt Davis | Episode 477
Matt Davis’ work marks society in the information age and is concerned with a post-contemporary aesthetic in the form of hyperreal vessels. The artifacts aim to challenge perceptions of the digital medium and further the dialogue of handmade versus machine in the creation of craft.
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So where do you see your art taking you in the next five years?
I hope to push my own envelop. I want to make bigger things that will hopefully gain more recognition and hopefully I could sell for more money and hopefully make more of a living doing something that I enjoy.
Where do you see you taking your art in the next few years?
England is a very small place and it is very easy to get sucked into a bubble of there is this city and this city. But actually there is a very wide world out there, so I would love to come to America with my work and Europe and other places like that.
How does one go about getting their work noticed?
Push, push, push. Well, I’m not a pushy guy actually, mine is more like fingers crossed. I think I am supposed to email people. I have been quite lucky in the shows that I have done.
Do you then think that showing up is the key to opening the next door?
Absolutely.
How so?
Because if you don’t do anything, if you don’t do enough, you are not going to go anywhere. I used to do a lot of Tai Chi and my teacher said, You can’t think yourself into right acting, you have to act yourself into right thinking. Obviously there has to have been the spark into the thought to get up and go. If you think, I am going to do this, I might go back to University, I don’t know. You are not going to actually go anywhere until you actually go and do the thing. So yes, you have to turn up, you have to make. There are down times in making that you need inspiration or you feel a bit stagnant but you have to show up or at least show up at the right time.
What do you think of this quote? Someday is not on the calendar.
There is only today, right? The only time that exists is now.
Do you like to work in a series?
I don’t think I naturally want to do that but it is very useful to work in series. And I think objects are often more powerful in a group.
Do you mean in a set or in a linear progression?
Either way. I think both of those would have interesting answers.
One of my tutors in university said, If you can’t make something good, makes lots of it or make it big.
Do restrictions help open up creativity?
Yes, obviously and no, obviously as well. I think if you are restricted so much that you can’t do something, I think that general restrictions and limitations make people want to break out and go crazy, wear loud clothing, or whatever these things are. I think some restrictions are kind of healthy because you are looking to work around them but if it is too restrictive then it probably stifles creativity as well.
When you think of your work, what kind of emotion are you trying to create in your viewers?
Confusion. People react very differently, I think younger people identify with it easily and older people tend to be fascinated by the geometry and the shadows. But most people end up looking confused anyway so I seem to take that as a good thing. What is that? How is it done? I wanted to make something that people haven’t seen before even thought the techniques have all existed I am trying to take it another step forward and making it a permanent record of this digital age, if you will.
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Contact:
Instagram: @matt.h.davis