Matthew Welch
(24 years old. Born in United Kingdom. Lives in: London)
wimbledon college of art
My work engages with the cultural material associations located in the space left between art & design. Through this sculptural engagement with material and form histories are unearthed that allow the forms to quote themselves and their materials symbolically, oscillating between image and object realities.
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Work of art I would like to make
Continuing my research and exploration into the histories and relationships within design and its material functions, the piece of work I am planning to make next is a scale replica of Gerrit Rietveld's Schroeder Table using melamine covered particleboard. I have used melamine previously for its cultural associations with cheap minimal DIY furniture from the 90's and more recently going on to be a crucial medium of the IKEA enterprise; designs that are now being re-appropriated by other companies trying to keep up. By recreating Rietveld's table using these materials, that have been consumed by the culture of flat-pack design, and applying an element of craft and care to their construction I want the work to discuss the values associated with the De Stijl and Bauhaus movements - namely the associations that the Bauhaus placed on craftsmanship as an occupation of the proletariat worker which was later handed over to machine production due to its efficiency and seriality. What interests me here is how these values went on to be used within minimalism to remove the artist from the work. This autonomous plastic space has now been handed down and rebuilt by companies like IKEA and manifestations of the Bauhaus model remain. Rietveld’s original furniture sits awkwardly; being simultaneously out dated, yet effortlessly contemporary. My work will hopefully enact this anachronism from the other side – questioning a socialism of design.
The work I would make would contain and expand this project to perhaps occupy a space across several component works.
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My Artworks (6)
Click on the images to enlarge
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