Catalogue > At random

The work juxtaposes close up images of an ageing Donald Judd sculpture with a dialogue about biological adaptation, function and vestigial structures. The film appropriates the Judd piece that is said to exist in a place somewhere between art and architecture, but a full view is never shown, just upward looking shots of details and the effects of time and nature upon it that increase in frequency as the film progresses. The treatment of the Judd sculpture transforms it from a formal to a representational structure, becoming a questioning not just of the original, but also of function, the inherent qualities of physical and historical structures and permanence or resistance to change. The editing of the film also gradually develops along with the narrative, thus embodying structural adaptation whilst discussing it. The viewer is then left with questions of temporality and change, be it artistic, social, biological, historical or structural, of what something was, what it is now and what it might become.

Matthew Verdon?s practice deals with man made structures and constructs, challenging and questioning them as an attempt to understand social systems and processes that are in constant flux. Change is an unavoidable part of life, the question is how do we deal with it. Utilising past and vernacular structures, Verdon transforms them with notions of the present to speculate, experiment and adapt in order to think about the nature of things and objects in the world, how we shape them and how they shape us. The outcomes of his practice usually take the form of video, collage and small to medium scale objects. Verdon was born in Brisbane, Australia, and presently lives and works in London. He has studied at Chelsea College of Art, London and Goldsmiths College, London. He has exhibited widely both throughout the United Kingdom and internationally, with recent exhibitions including The Object as Image at Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna (2012), An Exchange with Sol Lewitt, MASS MOCA, Massachusetts, USA (2011), Hors Pistes, Pompidou Centre, Paris (2011), All that glitters is not institution, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2010), and Madrid Abierto, La Casa Encendida & Spanish National Radio, Madrid (2010).