MATTEO DELRED

WHAT MATTERED WAS THEIR EXISTENCE

The mystical stature of being an artist leads to a form of persecution by a society that still feels the need to 'burn the heretics'. If an artist is expected to behave like a deity, and survive off their worshipping subjects, they will and do go hungry in a world that values their mysticism over the mundane reality of their creative craft; with bills to pay.

For there is an expectation that it is necessary to wade through desolation to create a folklore of greatness from the struggle that happens before their post-mortem recognition. The value is then retrospectively applied when the art can no longer be produced, and the realisation of what has been lost from the world is noticed. The mystical tap has been switched off. Then the art becomes how much can be drained before it turns rancid with greed, resurrected by nostalgia, or simply fades away as the artist's second death.

This collection is about the transient nature of the original pieces of art, and their ongoing second life as photography reproductions. The dark background signifying the physical art separated from reality, as art seen in a vacuum, and their practical descriptions demystifies any 'magic' of their creation, but what mattered was their existence.

Art is more than a distraction

from the seriousness of life i follow

in the way an energy saving light bulb

has kept the mood far from bright until now

i took to domestication in its most natural form

like a stiff arm awakening to a hello

to all those before the fourth wall is breached

and my part to play in this through gritted teeth