Matt Fratson’s collective body of work references memory loss — an erosion of the mind’s ability to communicate effectively — as well as documentation as a form of communicating across time. His research delves into the impacts that disintegration and transference have on us individually and collectively. The materials he uses are carefully considered, and bolster his messages about parallel processes experienced by the earth and by humans, with a particular interest in the anthropocene.

Wider context of his work can be found on his website here, and in the video, mesoMESONEOLITHIC, below.

“I see my practice as an accumulation of fragments, rarely complete or resolved, and defined by behaviours that slowly emerge over a long period of time. These fragments are usually the result of experimental re-workings of personal and geologic material, from scraps of my childhood handwriting to fossilised material from the glacial clay deposits along the coast. In transferences between physical and digital processes, This 'geology of making' is aligned to central concerns I have regarding memory loss and the impact of fragmentation, organic and inorganic on a wider narrative understanding of current behaviours of change across the constructed natural world which sustains us.”

“This series began with a persistent preoccupation with my primary school scrapbook folders. The work utilises scraps of polystyrene packaging material, and laser-cut stencils from a typeface I designed based on scans of my childhood handwriting, amongst cuttings from seed packets of vegetables I planted in an allotment shared with my grandfather.”

Matt Fratson is an artist currently based in Hull, England. He utilises objects, archival material, printmaking, sound and CGI in a continuous examination of memory and cognitive narratology in poetic counterpoint with geology and processes of transformation across earth sciences. He received his MA in Fine Art Digital from UAL London in 2020.