Matthew Gordon
San Francisco, California
Biography
Matthew Gordon is an artist, engineer, carbon-based bipedal, and professor of Chaos Science at the Berkeley Institute for Transchaotic Studies.
He is the founder of Hydrocarbon Collective, an international criminal syndicate based in Gstaad, Switzerland, dedicated to the philosophy that "Art Should Be Dangerous".
He holds a doctorate in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is the author of "Uranibörg", a 10 minute musical about the life of Tycho Brahe, the 17th c Danish astronomer, is a published poet, and has been designated "Armed and Extremely Harmless" by the US Postmaster General.
Artist’s Work
Torch Song by Hydrocarbon Collective
Building a Forest
Matthew’s Tree Concept
Switch Tree, for Lost Friends
This is the first piece I have completed in 2020.
2020 is a year in which we have lost so many friends, to death, to racism, to brutality, to privilege, to mental illness, to self injury.
This piece has nothing to do with any of that, and it also has everything to do with it, because I made it to distract myself from those things.
I have the privilege of being able to distract myself from those things. Most people do not. People are scared, and hungry, and angry. This work is not me rising to the challenges of our world, this work is me retreating from them, to channel my pain and sadness into something tangible that I hope will make someone happy.
It draws on themes and images from my childhood, as an aspiring scientist, building contraptions from batteries and lights. These were the happiest moments of my childhood, a retreat from the abuse, neglect, and isolation that constantly encroached upon me.
The spectre of our society's dissolution, our abandonment of a common purpose at every level, and our self-imposed isolation in response to the dangers outside our front doors has brought those feelings crashing back, and I have retreated to many of the same defenses of my childhood. I am trying to grow, and rise to the moment, but I too often find myself covering my head, and sobbing, and wishing it would just go away, much as I did in the shed behind the house as a child.
Presenting art to the world in 2020 is self-absorbed, and presenting art to the world in 2020 is an act of deepest vulnerability. I hope you will forgive the former, and find something in the latter that speaks to you.
