Matthew Hunt

Born Perth, Western Australia. Hunt attained an Honours degree Bachelor of Art at Curtin University of Technology (2005) after studying a Bachelor of Art at Curtin University of Technology, Australia (1993) and has a background in Graphic Design. In 2006 he was curated for the highly regarded Octopus 6, Curated by Zara Stanhope, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne. Hunt has held several solo in Melbourne with dianne tanzer gallery (2008-09), Conical Inc (2007) and West Space (2001). He has also shown at major public galleries in Australia such as the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Art Gallery of Western Australia and overseas in galleries such as AIT, Tokyo, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Zealand (2002), Basel, Switzerland (2004) and Gitte Weise Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2008). He has received numerous Art Flight ARTSWA grants and is the Co Founder of the Acquittal Report magazine with Dr Robert Cook. His works has been aquired by The Art Gallery Of Western Australia, Art Bank, Kerry Stokes Collection (Australian Capital Equity), Curtin University of Technology, City of Perth Collection and Private Collections.

Exhibitions

Pure Gut Feeling - 2009

A man walks along the beach. A bright day, early morning, warm and comfortable. Suddenly a gun is forced into the back of his neck. Within seconds he is dead - awkwardly lying, twisted on the sand, he slowly becomes embedded in the wet surface. The bullet entered high on the neck, exiting the forehead just off centre. Camus, as he was known to the local children, liked to watch short bursts of wind dance across the surface of the water as he walked to the beachside caf. His life was uneventful, but one where keenly observed minor misses, mistakes and oddities took on great importance and meaning. He loved the children for their slippery syntax and the contextual play that jabbered unwittingly from their mouths. But more than that, the children triggered his own memories of his life, lost memories, lost places, lost words. This stretch of sand that became his last place of rest was never his own. It triggered for him the memory of his childhood beach, where he searched for coins that were revealed by the strong afternoon winds, and where he played life and death Hide & Seek in the sand dunes.

Berlin Biennale - 2008

Show Me Your World 2008 Curated by Hannah Matthews Gitte Weise Gallery Berlin

Matthew Hunt - Untitled (Vertical Island)

Falling from Earth - 2006

3 Points of Reference 1. In 2004 I started a process of videoing the dusk sky as it falls into darkness. Whenever I am out of the metropolitan area I take my camera to record this without the interference of the city lights. This process is about locating myself on the planet, finding a point of reference and a point of wonder. The stars move through frame at the speed of the rotation of the earth, the same speed as I am moving when standing still. Sometimes I capture satellites and the occasional meteor. On one outing I caught a large meteor. It was bright orange and spinning and burning its way to earth. I love this footage, it's a proof of life, my life, the life of that meteor. It's quiet. It's about patience. I wonder a lot about that meteorite, that object falling to earth and conversely I wonder what falls from earth 2. I am out the back cleaning a small tricycle I found on the street from the annual rubbish collection that same morning. It is dusk. The sun has set but it is still light, it is warm. I look up to the west - I don't know why. I see a bright moving light. It's moving straight, there are no other lights, nothing flashing like a plane might do. It was very high, but not as high as a satellite. It surprised me, I couldn't take my eyes off it. I took a risk and ran inside, grabbing the video camera I managed to capture a minute of footage. It revealed nothing but it was some sort of proof of what I saw. The next morning I rang the observatory to report my sighting and spoke briefly to someone who obviously gets assigned to these kinds of public calls. I decided not to tell him that my back garden and house was full of meteor-like objects in various stages of development. He suggested I find out whether the International Space Station was on a close orbit, but that was all he could offer me. He didn't even take my name and number, which I thought was strange, just in case he needed my witness. The ISS was very close to Perth on that evening but that's all I know. 3. I don't have a good memory. This is a understatement. I find this fact crippling and disappointing. Often I dangerously rely on photography to fill the void between the actual and my hazy messy memory. The series Untitled Landscapes is becoming larger with a number of big projects coming under its banner, most of these projects centre on places in my day to day movements, some have become large archives of images; visitations of the same space/place dating over years. These landscapes fill a space in my life reserved for critical engagement, they give me the density, complexity and reference I need to position and define myself in the contemporary world. For me they are a pause and a reflection, and a continuing reference to Wonder. Matthew Hunt

Matthew Hunt - Untitled landscape (Snow Tree)

Matthew Hunt - Untitled landscape (Mud Flat)

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