Art
The Constructivists created works of art that would make the viewer an active participant, and Houlding’s exhibition likewise encourages us to explore and roam, to devise our own narratives.
Helen Tope
Art Review: Lagoon West
Matthew Houlding: Lagoon West
Lagoon West is a deserted land of swimming pools, sunsets, manicured gardens and beach house enclaves.
A world where bespoke and meticulously built environments pay homage to the utopian zeal and pioneering
spirit of the modernist dream. A vision which has become a collection of motifs that stimulate the memory of past
glories and the imagination of future endeavour. Traces of human activity shimmer like fragments left behind in
abandoned buildings. Peering over ledges and through tinted windows we witness echoes of memory and a lost
future.
Making is central to Matthew Houlding’s practice, working with recycled materials, Perspex and ready-made
objects. His collages and constructions are layered landscapes of materiality, surface, colour, shape and volume,
in which he combines abstract and figurative elements inspired by the built environment and the natural world.
Houlding’s style is graphic, colourful and hard-edged. Drawing on influences such as Pop Art, Minimalism and
Constructivism, the work is ultimately grounded in formal sculptural and architectural concerns.
Matthew Houlding lives and works in West Yorkshire.
