Michael Matthews
Michael Matthews is an abstract photographer with over four decades experience as both a composer and photographer. As a Victoria-based composer, his practice has spanned orchestral, chamber, and electroacoustic music. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
The abstract photographs of Michael Matthews are based on his original photography and manipulated in a state of flux with many layers over time in Photoshop. Although there is an investigative purpose to unlock fragments within his composition, there is no intended design or plan. Rather, the artist unfolds his photographs until they slowly reveal haunting forms which seem to crouch, watch, and react to the viewer. Some of the photographs may appear figurative, or rather, apparitional. These ghostly figures within Michael Matthews’ photography barely emerge from his abstracted sfumato compositions. Within the mist, an abyss emerges within his photography…and the abyss stares back.
We will find the main driving component with the abstract photographs of Michael Matthews would be the texture. Based on his methods of layered exposures, dodging and burning, masking, different blend modes in Photoshop, the compositions and forms often result in an appearance resembling the texture of petrified wood. This ‘aged’ or erosive style reveals atmospheres which seem both ancient and ethereal simultaneously. Besides petrified wood, some of the textures may appear like raw or assembled tree bark. Such natural textures in his photographs reveals compositions which are not only haunting and lucid, but also express a oneness with nature or the natural world as a symbolic metaphor. In process, Michael Matthews behaves much like a detective. Rather than creating a design based on a pre-conceived concept or vision, the artist searches for clues within his photography. These fragments he is looking for are to piece a puzzle which brings mysterious ‘life’ within his work, an apparition or apparitional-like entity which ultimately emerges from the layers of his manipulation within the form of pixelated sfumato. Michael Matthews process is fluxus in nature, revealing a search for art, rather than a pre-determination or formulation.
Kin (pictured above) is amongst Michael Matthew’s most figurative works. Appearing similar to an X-ray, figurative-like forms seem to emerge into a group which coalesce with one another. Their ‘heads’ seem to be bowed down as if in a state of mourning, engulfed by the darkness. Such narrative derived from flux which seems as scientific as haunted, reveals a process rich in improvisation leaving behind clues to study the formulations of pieced fragments.
In analysis, we will find the portfolio of Michael Matthews offers variety in methods which offer alternative approaches to abstraction. Through investigation and searching / assembling fragments, the artist is not creating art for art’s sake or an ultimate design, rather, Michael Matthews is searching for a sense of meaning to emerge out of his compositions. In other words, he is summoning apparitional forms which both haunt and soothe the audience. Much like his work as a composer, he is orchestrating the mist and aquatic-like elements within the structure of his two-dimensional surfaces. These enchanted yet grounded-in-reality forms seem earthly yet other-worldly at the same time. Other-worldly in the unfamiliarity, yet earthly in the erosive qualities which have textures reminiscent of aspects within nature, such as tree bark or the moss on the side of a rock. These ruminations of Michael Matthews offer both wonder and elements of disturbance.
