Manuel Mathieu, new works
Another Nigga, 2015.
About:
MANUEL MATHIEUwas born in 1986 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. In December 2010 he completed a BA degree in visual and media arts at L’Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada, and he is currently studying for the master’s degree in visual art at Goldsmiths, University of London. His work has been exhibited in Haiti, Canada, the United States, and France, in such art venues as the Museum of the Americas (DC), Museum of Montparnasse in Paris, and the Museum of Civilization in Quebec (Canada). He is author of Abysse/Abyss (Galerie Monnin, Haiti, 2012).
Another Nigga, 2015.
Statement:
Painting 15, 2015.
I have been facing emptiness recently. I wonder whether this feeling is coming from me or whether I am reacting to something external. Maybe I am giving up? Constantly haunted by these thoughts, I use a variety of artistic languages in an attempt to put myself at ease. Yet all of these mediums now have no boundaries between them—the lines are blurred by an unconditional desire to express ideas. I am trying to say something about myself and my place in this world. I am attracted to irregularities, gaps, scars of the past, and the undeniable present. I seek to transcribe those irregularities, but sometimes I trip over my own lack of sincerity. I find it difficult to be honest with myself; I try my best to be genuine. What transpires are objects that reflect my disinterest in reality or the emptiness that I feel towards it. This sentiment of emptiness infiltrates my paintings and tests my convictions. Every time these convictions crystallize in order to bring me peace, it inevitably breaks down into thousands of pieces under the pressure of certainty. When I manage to find my grounding, the image that appears in front of me incarnates a world that is distorted by my lack of understanding. I refuse to accept that there is nothing to understand, and therein lies the crux of my struggle.
Painting 15, 2015.
With my thoughts, my ideas, and my dreams guiding me, I am searching for a better way to be.
(text from site Project Muse, 2014)