AMBIGUITY

We live in a world saturated by signs. We live in a world consumed by narratives. Sometimes these narratives touch on the signs that surround us, but for the most part this function of art has disappeared to be replaced by a careful scripting coordinated by the virtual institution. 

The function of art bringing narratives and signs together eliminated by the virtual institution because it threatened to lead to a change they thought they might not control.

The show ‘Ambiguity’ tries to resurface some of the mechanisms of that lost function. To say it like this sounds cold and arbitrary but Matthew da Silva’s art has always stretched out a hand to the past hoping to find something to grasp in a world that we all know is often unforgiving. The coolness and casualness of da Silva’s creations evidence of an ability to adapt.

Using a few basic elements each series of works, of which a portion is included in the show, da Silva attempts to reach a balance between what is clear and what hidden. The basic elements might be a cutout collage shape, an old photo from the archives coloured in surprising but strangely familiar ways.