Working across objet trouvè and painting, I am interested in scarcity and specificity, the tension of the spaces between objects, and the signs of human-use embedded in patina.
Reimagining each object with consideration for the visually available history, I use the objects “as found”, embracing the tactile nature of the desaturated palette and textures embedded by time, human-use, and the elements. Sometimes adding marks but not manufacturing patina.
Strategies I employ for constructing these works include hoarding, sifting, sorting, including and excluding. Each material or painting is placed into compositions according to an intuitive urge, a somatic process bringing together a meeting and moment of tension between two things, and a creation of space between them. Precipice-dwelling moments of making mean each iteration is unique and responds to the site.
Surface becomes gesture, and loose painterly forms emerge from the compositions and speak directly to the small textured paintings which inhabit the works as integral companion pieces.
One informing the next in a quiet feedback loop.
Tāmaki Makaurau artist Bryony Matthew has exhibited across both painting and sculpture since 2007, and will complete her Bachelor of Design and Contemporary Art at Unitec in 2025.