Matt Calderwood — À propos — Slash Paris

Matt Calderwood is an artist that works in many mediums, in fact whatever medium is appropriate to his specific idea.

Black rubber has all sorts of associations, what were yours?

“An initial reference was the black rubber dive brick used for swimming lessons. Black also absorbs light and tends to be the default colour for rubber, as in tyres. I’ve always thought there’s an almost sculptural quality about tyre dumps, in that all the objects are uniform matt black shapes.”

Matt Calderwood in conversation with Helen Sumpter, TimeOut London, Wed Jun 16 2010

“Nine identical, large, black rubber objects are stacked like a puzzle, interlocking and tessellating in three dimensions, recalling minimalist sculpture by the likes of Robert Morris, Sol Lewitt and Tony Smith. The humorous and fetishistic associations of rubber and the transient nature of the resulting sculptures temper the apparent austerity of minimalism. Only when the rubber objects are placed and put together, working with the forces of friction and gravity, does the sculpture manifest itself. From a philosophical standpoint, we are ultimately dealing with the concept of power where power only exists when exercised against something (or someone) else, and underpinned by structural conditions.”