The Mill welcomes Matthew Fortrose, our new Artist in Residence in The Mill's Exhibition Space. Matthew will be in residence from 1 December 2018 - 10 February 2019 working on his project Cityboi.
Matthew Fortrose’s Cityboi explores our subtle reactions in a built environment, ideas around the placement of objects in the city and how they could be reinterpreted as obstacles in our daily routine, and our unintentional contribution to the landscape. The Mill invites you to witness Matthew’s creative practice and to watch the exhibition unfold in the Exhibition Space across the 10 weeks of the residency. Matthew will be presenting a number of public outcomes as part of his residency, including a mural painting on December 15 as part of The Mill Market at Christmas!
The Mill’s Visual Arts Curator Adele Sliuzas sat down with Artist in Residence Matthew Fortrose to have a chat about his practice. This is the first in a series of podcasts ‘in conversation’ with artists for The Exhibition Space Residency Program. Listen HERE!
Matthew is looking to use the time at The Mill to investigate the local environments and develop and ongoing, process driven body of work. He says:
‘The work I'm planning on making in my residency will be an exaggeration of the smaller details observed in a city setting. I plan to develop four sets of finished work throughout the residency, encouraging visitors to inspect the progress throughout the duration.
Works exploring our subtle reactions in a built environment, ideas around the placement of objects in the city and how they could be reinterpreted as obstacles in our daily routine, and pieces focusing on our unintentional contribution to the landscape.
From the start of the residency I'll use instagram as the main tool of interaction with audience. Many of the works will allow for involvement with participants, I will encourage people to come in and view the progress throughout the 2 months, and will also have 2 locked in dates with activities for community involvement.
The exhibition outcome will investigate our relationship and contribution to the city through subtle interventions. Using documentation and encouraging interaction through instagram, I’m hoping to make connections with an audience to further discuss navigation and deeper observations within human-made space.’
Artist Biography
Matthew Fortrose is a multi-disciplinary artist whose current practice spans studio paintings and sculptures, outdoor paintings, installation and photography. Working with synthetic materials, Fortrose's work explores and creates tensions between natural and manufactured, intentional and incidental, digital representation and physical artefact. Drawing influence from colour field painting and early Bauhaus graphics, the use of rudimentary tools and industrialized processes assist in constructing a strong visual language towards his work. Using documentation of the built environment, interventions within urban space and explorations into materiality, Fortrose work seeks to engage an audience through a series of investigations around the use of public space, and how this communicates to a formal practice.
About the program
The Mill’s Exhibition Space Residency program is presented in partnership with the City of Adelaide. The program positions artistic process to the fore, allowing audiences direct access to creative research and making. During this residency The Exhibition Space operates with a studio-like mentality where knowledge arises through participation and experimentation. The Mill believes that art positions itself within transitions and passages; it opens up opportunities for incursions through relation. The Exhibition Space opens the creative process to the public in a way that positions the city’s community as foundational to artistic research and the creative process, thereby connecting people to cultural experience, insights, understanding and meaning. The Exhibition Space hosts four residencies across the year. Artists in Residence have included John Blines, memorias exspirare 2 June – 25 August 2018, Louise Flaherty, Memorial for Forgotten Plants, 1 September – 14 November 2018 and Matthew Fortrose, 1 December 2018 – 10 February 2019.
RESIDENCY DETAILS
Matthew Fortrose
Cityboi
1 December 2018- 10 February 2019
The Exhibition Space Residency
The Mill Adelaide
154 Angas Street, Adelaide SA 5000