Whilst these works are site specific, they are underpinned by a constant dialog of inner and outer experiences at local locations. It is about making works that are about experiences in the landscape, acknowledging my lineage and ancestry and the slippages that occur with representing landscape ethically. Whilst I am making work about my experience in the landscape, the construct of the figure or evidence of the figure is predominant, as in the role of a spectator or some other implied presence. This is a symbol of my heritage that is sympathetic to, but struggles with a more nomadic approach to representing the site. Implemeting this new, nomadic approach is charged with new experience and livened with new experiences and associations – it is teetering on unresolved but this does allow questions for further exploration, it’s a familiar face without a name.
The slippage occurs when my intent to decentralise the subject of landscape and concentrating on experience of being present has an equal mix of resolve and failure – it further informs the works, that then present an alternative narrative - an alternative and personal history.
My studio production then can be summarized as psychological maps of being present in the places I visit - whether physical, constructed, misconstrued, tenuous or affirmed.
Matt O'Brien, 2018
