Holly Matthews

Feed by Holly Victoria Matthews

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My practice is centred around an investigation of how to document my stream of consciousness through drawing and durational performance – to make physical my internal language and attempt to capture all impressions that occur during each performance: visual and auditory feedback; awareness of process; physical experience; associative thought; and subliminal connections. 

I want to create a performance-drawing on the Upper Promenade space situated within the new part of the Whitworth. I want to activate this ‘non-art’ space into a site for durational performance. It will be a working/recording process that lasts for three hours. 

My inspiration for this work is mainly drawn from two moments in the Whitworth’s exhibition history: The first being Marina Abramovic Presents (2009) [For the 2009 Manchester International Festival -Abramovic emptied the Whitworth of its collection and installed a group of durational performance artists within the gallery instead.] and secondly the current Elizabeth Price Curates: IN A DREAM YOU SAW A WAY TO SURVIVE AND YOU WERE FULL OF JOY (2016). Two extraordinarily ambitious exhibitions curated by two prolific female artists that activated/activate the Whitworth’s spaces in a unique and unprecedented way.

Born 1991 in Watford. Since graduating from Cardiff School of Art in 2014, my work has been exhibited in the UK and Greece. The Marina Abramovic Institute (MAI) has featured my Durational Drawing series on the institute’s online platform for long durational work, Immaterial (2014), as well as screening my work as part of the MAI/NEON As One exhibition at the Benaki Musuem (2016). I am now based in Manchester and currently work at the Whitworth.