Constructure

About

Constructure presents a sideways look at ideas of construction, fragmentation and illusion. Haddock and Swift's visual language shares a desire for complex integration and constructivist rigour that is also very alive to a playful and experiential sense of the city: its forms, solidities and speeds. While being a world away from the dogmatic thrusts and parries of Futurism, their work carries a similar sense of possibility, or architectural ‘becoming'. Simon Haddock's new paintings condense the energy and tempo of different places, to re-present them, not through mimesis, but through memory and accumulation. Working for the first time on canvas, his mark making becomes more spontaneous and exuberant. The signature, routed forms from his work on solid surfaces as illusory cuts and fissures, and compete with physical holes drilled into the flesh of the work. Simon Haddock is a graduate of the RA. He has shown with Paton, Zwemmer and Vertigo Galleries. More recently he has shown at Exeter Phoenix and The Studio Glenda Cinquegrana, Milan. He also makes installations in collaboration with sculptor Stuart Chubb: they showed Daedalus at Standpoint in 2008 (Into the Fold). Matthew Swift uses photographic images as starting points for three-dimensional constructions. The photographs are selected for their formal qualities, images that suggest a pivotal point between a record of reality and the starting point for something more abstract. The geometric fragmentation of a grey pavement spotted with blotches of chewing gum strangely conveys a subdued beauty. A discarded metal gate, painted in primary colours, situated behind a mesh fence, plays with ideas of grids, layering, repetition and pattern. Matthew Swift graduated from Central/St Martins in 1989 with a degree in theatre design and from New York University with a MFA in 1999. He was a Florence Trust resident from 2007-8. His solo show Interrupted Spaces was at Madame Lillies in May 2009. He has also had several solo shows in Australia.