Matthew aims to create projects that spur users’ imagination and encourage interaction with the surrounding site by interrogating the everyday curiosity, such as people’s personalities and relationships with materials to create conversations and empathetic responses.
Matthew’s mission is to bridge the gap between materials, public spaces, architecture, re-imagining new interactions, social experiences and striving for new omnipresence to create sensory and atmospheric spaces that is accessible to everyone.
Matthew has practiced in boutique studios and international firms as a designer and fabricator across Sydney and Melbourne. He is currently a panel member of the Room-to-Create panel for Yarra City Council and a practicing artist focusing on public spaces. He is active in the design realm, participating in community projects and designing large-scale installations for events including Vivid Light Show in Sydney and Melbourne Racing Carnival.
The Talking Wall
The Talking Wall transforms the notion of a dividing barrier into a signifier for new opportunities and connection. It will be a cultural laboratory for multi- disciplinary artists and communities to actualise their collaboration through an architectural installation. The Talking Wall will act as a conduit for new modes of communication and will question the conventions of what a public space looks like. It will be a dynamic vessel that acts as a springboard for many different opportunities for multi-disciplinary dialogue and exchanging of innovative ideas. These curated creative partnerships will provide alternative platforms for collaboration across multi-disciplinary, geographic and ideological boundaries.
Creative practitioners will engage in collaborative processes, spatial experimentation and material innovation to promote public discourse around community, social and political content. The base framework of the installation will consist of easy-to- assemble modules that can be transformed into various configurations to allow the widest range of programming possibilities. The architecture will leave no impact on the environment once it has been assembled/ disassembled. Hence, the final aesthetic of each structure will be dictated by the collaborators, contextual site and curated programs.
The installation will be a point of connection for the community, building a sense of collectivity and commitment to fostering interaction and communication. Every iteration of the project will be different depending on the contributing artists and unique community involvement, allowing various multi-disciplinary collaborations to blur the boundaries between art and architecture. The installation has endless potential in configurations and use as a public space activation tool. It could act as a hub for anything from housing community workshops, live performances and auditory/ visual exhibitions.