BATTLEFIELD

The Battlefield series is influenced by a number of experiences and concepts.

As a Cornishman, Matt was instilled with a sense of independence and fight, as he became connected to notions of identity, both personally and collectively. This was enhanced when as a teenager Matt moved with his family to Suffolk then Essex and into a new reality. Imagery of soldiers became a symbol of striving to overcome something difficult.

Matt’s grandfather was a Japanese prisoner of war. He endured unimaginable suffering but kept a diary and laid his experiences down on tape. These are an ongoing source of inspiration and his grandfather was at the forefront of Matt’s mind when producing these paintings.

Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold or silver. Matt has referenced this technique in many of his Battlefield paintings forcing his work through an accelerated ageing process, often ‘attacking’ the piece of work before mending it with metallic materials