MATT SMITH

Matt’s award-winning practice takes historical objects and repurposes them into new situations to tell alternative narratives. Alongside his studio practice, he is in demand for exhibitions in public museums and galleries. Recent solo shows include Flux: Parian Unpacked at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Losing Venus at the Pitt Rivers Museum and Who Owns History? at Brighton Museum.

Matt’s prints - Recording the Invisible - were developed for the exhibition 'Losing Venus' at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. Each print is based on a photograph from the museum’s collection. Each photograph was taken in a country where the British imposed or maintained homophobic legislation. Drawing on the gridded patterns used in Victorian photography to ‘scientifically record’ racial difference, the photographs illustrate the erasure of identities and ways of being around the world under colonial rule.

Matt’s textiles take found pieces which are meticulously unpicked and restitched, usually in wool but also silk depending on the original material. His main motivation with the work is to take the prime focus out of the image - removing the figures and replacing them with background. This allows viewers to project what they want to onto the work, and doesn’t allow the eye to settle on the natural focal point - making them more unsettling and dynamic.

Matt was Professor of Craft at Konstfack University of the Arts in Stockholm and is Honorary Visiting Fellow at the School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester.