The Sun and The Moon, a series of woven and painted works by Christy Matson at Volume Gallery

2 November - 29 December ‘18

Volume Gallery is pleased to announce The Sun and The Moon, a series of woven and painted works by Christy Matson. Opening on November 2, 2018, this exhibition presents new pieces by Matson.

The Sun and The Moon explores notions of production, beauty, and material through a calculated balance of oppositions. The relationship of the machine and the handmade, the formal and informal, the structure and unstructured provide the practical and conceptual foundation to this body of work. Just as the sun and moon are independent forces that are equally necessary to keep the universe in motion; in Matson’s weaving it is the relationship of opposites that coalesce into a dynamic dimension. A casual spirit grounds these dualities producing work that is soft while strong as an unexpected balance emerges from these tensions.

Developed through a rigorous, measured, and technical approach, and produced on a hand-operated, computer-programming Jacquard loom, each weaving begins with a complex structural foundation. Within this structure, Matson inserts painterly and gestural marks through an intuitive process of drawing with yarn. Conceptually, the duality of the machine and the hand, both used in various modes of textile production, explores relationships of gender stereotypes; the industrial and work made by hand.

The formal compositions in each piece are inspired by a range of sources centered around the relationship of nature with the urban environment. These sources draw different and sometimes conflicting connotations. The motif of a flower, for instance, might be regarded as rigorous in modern art and yet dismissed as decorative in traditional arts. The use of gridded elements, which are often emblematic of order and organization, instead become destabilizing thought the loose manner in which they are rendered in Matson’s work. Her pieces flourish in these differences with a complex beauty produced through composition, conceptual rigor, and material expression.

The work takes a critical stance on the culture of excess and mass production. Matson often selects leftover materials from the textile industry to reformulate their value. With a belief that the materiality is as important as the composition, these surplus materials add important qualities of texture, color, and happenstance.

Matson produces weavings that extend beyond formal considerations into questions of history, process, and material studies. She pulls together differing and opposing methods and ideas to push beyond the paradoxical into a productive relationship—as the sun and the moon activate life. This series weaves the material with the immaterial through distinct compositions that question the past as they chart new territories into the worlds of design, textiles, and fine art.