Matthew Kolakowski

I work primarily in paint. My paintings refer to the world but not descriptively. They exist in the form of extended shorthand. Colour and interference are their keys.

The boxes are meant to be open and closed. They contain and display their content. Some pieces deal with issues close to the heart. Some explore paradox and a few are daydreams.

I started making things in boxes almost accidentally. Recycling and refurbishing debris for a new world. They are sources of power and residual meaning. Saying what I cannot with paint.

Battery Box would have been a real wet cell battery It became re-crafted as a different sort of battery. Set in wax a gold thread carries the charge through animal bones and teeth. The energy it provides is fictional but everlasting.

Mother's Mallette is not really a suitcase but an old toolbox. The family portraits are contemporary with the time of our mother's alcoholism. She would return home intermittently and smash the house up, Grief is not rational.

Hot Box is meant to represent an archaic manufactured portable heater. That is both hearthside and sexual stimulator, but in a 1950's sort of way. It is both romantic and functional. An advertising ideal we still subscribe to.

Water Box is a conceit of containing a private lake in a convenient carrying case. It's manufacture is possible but impracticable. It comes complete with folded paper boats and callipers. Measurement and entertainment are possible.

Apple box comes with real apples and a type-scale inside an old scales case. The apples are to be replaced periodically as they wither away. A clock of reminder's and infinite subtlety. Gravity ages us, as does bad typography.

Reliquary is a mixture of votive and compartmentalised moneybox. Saving for the mundane, giving for the tragic. It was meant to have intermittent flashing lights in each compartment. This proved too expensive to include.

All works are mixed media, circa 1998.