Matthew Merrick

I really enjoyed Matthew’s lecture. I do sometimes struggle with concentration, but he started things off by thumping his chest like a heart beat which was fun and got us all thinking about performance art.

As he talked about his art and his style, he played a video of various things to do with his interests and methods. I enjoy making and editing films and I want to experiment with the medium more in the future, but I liked the fact that the footage of books, photographs and him on a train, was accompanying him rather than just demonstrating his work, so I will definitely think about using film to accompany my own artwork and experiment with how I present it.

Matthew Merrick has developed a practice that out of necessity has become linked to travel rather than being studio-based. This definitely has inspired me as for the 2D project I decided to not have a studio space, but instead explore the new city that I’d moved to and take pictures and edit them in a cool vibrant way that I thought represented the city perfectly in my opinion. I was surprised that Matthew didn’t really like studios, saying they didn’t really work for him.  I sort of got that as I’ve spent the first term doing my artwork in my room as I think I work better in my own space on my own.  I do want to use the studio space in the future as my style of work tends to be on larger canvases with palette knives and oil paint and I think it could actually benefit me to have more space to create and socialise with fellow artists.