Sunday, 16 October 2016, 3.30 pm
Channel Sundays – Matthew McQuillan
hosted by Kunsthaus Hamburg
At Channel Sundays Matthew McQuillan will give a presentation from ongoing research into the contemporary values and conceptions placed upon the child and childhood, in the global north. Using examples from films, literature and theory, his presentation will consider the child/childhood as a social construct, the role of the family, and various political viewpoints; to explore our current emphasis on the child as an investment and a symbol of hope.
Working across written text, performance and installation, McQuillan’s practice combines found material and personal experience to focus on the overlooked; the nature of rubbish on a Los Angeles Street, a gesture of dismissal in a botched youtube selfie or a character’s attachment to a missing, cherished pet, for example. These details harbour ambiguous, and sometimes conflicting affects, such as care, anxiety, inertia and hysteria which the artist looks to question, in relation to personal and wider social relations. His practice often draws on situations and scenarios of suspended agency; in which a subject’s ability to act is obstructed or blurred. In recent years, his work has widened to include organising exhibitions and thematic events, as another means to explore and test ideas.
In March 2016 Matthew McQuillan gave a presentation on the aesthetics of gentrification, as part of ‘A Public Resource’, at Cubitt Gallery, London. There is a full video of the presentations contents.
Matthew McQuillan is a London-based artist, currently in residence at Triangle Marseille. Born 1982, (Bristol, UK) he graduated with an MFA from Goldsmiths University in 2010. Recent exhibitions / events include ‚Rough House‘, at The Glue Factory (part of Glasgow International); ‚A Public Resource‘, Cubitt (London, UK); ‚Bottom Natures‘, GCP (London, UK); ‚Concerning the Bodyguard‘, The Tetley, (Leeds, UK); ‚Soft Evidence‘, Legion TV (London, UK) and ‚Winter Escape‘, The Common House, (London, UK).
Channel Sundays is a series of seven public events, for artistic exchange and experimentation that takes place independently from the exhibitions at Kunsthaus Hamburg. Each session will host the work of one or two artists on a Sunday afternoon. The series is initiated by Joscha Schell and originally took place in his studio in Harburg. In October and November 2016 the events will be hosted by Kunsthaus Hamburg. Channel Sundays is made possible by the kind support of the Cultural Department of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg.