马特·金尼——IN

Deep within the earth, now sealed off, are the coal mines of Wumuchong. Located in the rural town of Meitanba, Hunan, it’s deep down mine shafts, long tunnels and coal seams are physically inaccessible. Though through the subconscious, the imagination and creative mind they are available. Wumuchong’s old surface structures being reclaimed by nature are wild and chaotic, open to investigation, exploration, to draw inspiration from. And from this, arising like a Phoenix is Refrain Mountain Institution, it’s new construction, studios, residency program aligned with Boxes Art Museum, Songshan Lake. Within this confluence creativity flourishes and thrives. Here Matt Kinney’s creative spirit found new inspiration and home.

Kinney loves the work environment at Refrain Mountain Institution. At it’s studios, situated within the old coal mining area, he produced drawings, sculptures and wood block prints. His sketchbook and photo albums are full. In the process of creating, he utilized metaphor to express the rich inner spirit of his works. Wandering amongst the ruins of the old mining area, he felt the heroism and passion of hard work of the former workers. Artworks “Coal on Fire” and “Primitive plants” are inspired by coal as a stored power, the earth history evidenced within it and it’s infinity of carbon black color. And when ignited and burning, it’s fire. This heat was without a doubt found within the spirit of those who had worked there. He feels it in his own.

Compared with the works created in Shunde six years ago, there is a difference between Mr. Matt’s creations in the coal dam station in Hunan Province. This is the first time he has come into contact with rural life in China, where everything seems wilder, more open and energetic. Although geo-based thinking is very important to his past creations, as a new challenge, he tries to devote most of his practical energy to understanding and reflecting on the historical environment of the mining area, and consciously tries to refuse to directly integrate the specific objects found into his works. Through the investigation of the ruins of the mining area, imagine the real labor scene, and at the same time, combine personal life experience to show the social reality problems faced by human beings. He is honored to understand the old coal mine from a later or third perspective, trigger the concept of obtaining creative themes and works in different ways, and show more deeply the essential meaning of the “coal mine” in the history of the earth. Under the background of a wider cultural exchange between the East and the West, Kinney can reside in the contemporary industrial site environment such as Refrain Mountain College. Although he is considered an invitation, it is also an opportunity for growth for artists. As a Westerner, Mr. Matt is more grateful.

After weeks of continuous residence work, the field experience in the mining area finally ignited a new ideological breakthrough for the exhibition. The exhibition space of Songshan Lake is more challenging and much larger than that of Shunde. And a very cool aspect of the work in Shunde is that it is adjacent to the museum. But this time is completely different. It can be said that this residence base is an impressive event. There is a creative “event” in the natural environment of Hunan, and then the works are transported to Dongguan for exhibition. This is not only a change in distance, but also a change in the communication relationship between the space of production works and the space of display, and even subverts his understanding of the meaning of residence and creation in his previous experience. This also led Matt to learn to adjust his creative practice within the time frame, which made him realize that in order to meet the imaginary scale of the exhibition space, a certain amount of pressure and speed needed to be maintained in the creative process. Matt found that his artistic inspiration and desire to create and build needed to be satisfied, quickly expanded, and challenged. He longed for this challenge. Wumuchong’s studio environment lends itself to that of the sculptor and to the creation of any idea or interpretation thereof. It is a different feeling from the urban studio. This kind of atmosphere combined with the ongoing challenges is like a “playground”. All novel events can happen at any time. There will be a rich experience in this environment every day. Perceptible inspirations everywhere bring accidental impulses, which very well satisfies the growing and expanding “appetite”. The space of “playground” drives the pace of work and provides the original thinking of Matt’s Songshan Lake Box Art Museum exhibition.

As Mr. Matt understands, in the international contemporary art creation in the past decade, the direct driving force generated by improvisation is very prominent. In the process of creative movement, grasping and keeping up with the artist’s own ideological needs and changes is the extremely high value of artistic aesthetics.