16 July – 30 August 2009 (Gallery closed 3 – 16 August)
from documenting the secret painting on the soles of his neighbours shoes, putting notes in strangers pockets, adding his silhouette to the inside of a light-bulb box, or making fragile sculptures from paper cups glued around his local town, Sawyer’s actions veer between the private and the public, using nominal gestures to create moments of great affect. Sawyer’s work literally extends from his house and out to the people that confront his day to day life, from neighbours to local shopkeepers, and down the road to the jobcentre. Through these actions in the outside world, Sawyer creates the role of a self-scripting narrator or story-teller, casting strangers as the players and setting situations that implicate him into a disruption, however slight, in their lives.
Sawyer almost hovers on the edge of an existential crisis, constantly recreating situations to prevent himself from tipping into the void, using these moments to maintain control.
The resulting documentations of these efforts to integrate with other’s daily routines is often as understated as the action itself. A simple photograph and line of text extends the tragic-comic endeavour, imbuing it with a certain poetry or lyricism akin to the lyrics he writes and sings with his musical collective ‘Mathew Sawyer & The Ghosts’. Sawyer also makes a number of drawings and paintings, often documenting a recurring figure – a cartoonish man, grinning and carnivalesque, who leers over the shoulders of the unaware waiting for the moment to do them wrong.
The relationship between Sawyer’s more poetic gestures, and this character’s presence in the paintings, balance his interventions with a darker counterpoint.
Mathew Sawyer is a London based visual artist, musician and writer.
