Miniature worlds

Went to see the Mike Kelly exhibition at the Kings Cross Gargosian, but as Larry won't let you take pictures I won't be showing any images - suffice to say it was underwhelming compared to the Charles Matton show.

AVA (All Visual Arts) has the first major retrospective of French artist Charles Matton. Thirty eight undiscovered boxes are installed in Kings Cross. From 1985 until his death in 2008, Charles Matton created mixed media works which defy easy classification. Theatrical, atmospheric, meticulously constructed, his small scale interiors are housed in see through boxes with glass fronts.

The miniature spaces represent real world interiors and revisited memories from Matton’s own life, as well as other recognizable places. The artist also fabricated interiors from his imagination, intended to recreate cherished sensations, such as the loneliness felt in an abandoned hotel corridor or the intimacy of a forgotten and disused library.

Matton and his assistant painstakingly hand built, painted and sculpted every visible detail to 1/7 scale, from fading wallpaper to broken light sockets. Some of his enclosures are of famous artist’s studios; such as Francis Bacon and Alberto Giacometti. They are such direct representations that viewing these boxes is almost like making a journey through time.

‘Magic boxes and metaphysical boxes, I’d like people to enter my boxes as they go round an exhibition’.

He also used the boxes as models to paint, sculpt and photograph from.

Well worth a visit and to compare to more modern work from Mike Kelly and his sculptures of Superman's birthplace, Kandor ...