MATT CALDERWOOD: Paper Over the Cracks

About

Matt Calderwood (born Northern Ireland in 1975) is known for his often perilous performances, sculptures and film works. Calderwood's carefully controlled sculptural systems transform materials into extraordinary structures where every part is essential to maintain a delicate status quo. Friction, counterbalance and leverage between these disparate objects are carefully orchestrated to avoid the system's complete collapse. For his first solo exhibition in a UK public gallery, Calderwood presents a selection of new and recent works including modular sculptures made out of painted plywood, cast rubber and steel. These works continue his investigation into co-dependent relationships between groups of objects, all towards a common sculptural goal. A selection of large-scale prints mirror the geometry and materiality of the sculptures. Made by inking the sculptures and pressing them onto the paper surface like large printing blocks, these works have a curious depth and texture. A series of new sculptures explore decaying and collapsing systems and the impact of environment and process on different materials. These Exposure Sculptures comprise multiple, identical elements that stack and interlock and can be built into a variety of compositions. Made of industrial welded steel, their robust forms have been given a fragile skin of paper. The works are installed on the gallery's roof terrace where they will weather and decompose to varying degrees and in unpredictable ways, their delicate surfaces recording their exposure and deterioration. The sculptures will be dismantled and reassembled inside the gallery space over the course of the exhibition. A new site-specific video installation featuring a new film work Mirror 2013 has been produced specially for the exhibition. The film has been developed from a previous work Strips (Vertical) 2005, in which a large bank of strip lights is systematically smashed until a single tube remains and the process of the shoot is revealed. The ambient light of the film projection illuminates a gallery space behind the screen in which the Exposure Sculptures will be placed, setting up a co-dependency between projected video and these static forms. The exhibition includes a new series of work, Exposure Sculptures, co-commissioned by BALTIC and De La Warr Pavilion. Matt Calderwood is supported by the Elephant Trust.