Michele Mathison creates sculptures and installations that investigate issues of migration, labour, cultivation, creation and destruction, reminding us of the violence inherent in colonisation and exploitation of labour and natural resources. Steel maize plants, ceramic jerry cans, concrete chainsaws and wooden AK-47s become symbols of the difficulties of surviving through subsistence in difficult economic conditions and evoke the idea of brutal uprooting of cultural heritage, political revolution and its self-perpetuating cycle of domination.
He presented his first UK solo exhibition Uproot in 2016, at Tyburn Gallery, London. He has previously shown his work in Belgium, Portugal and South Africa, among others. His sculptural work was featured in the Zimbabwean Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale (2013) and is included in the collection of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA), Cape Town, as well as the Norval Foundation. In 2018, Mathison will mount his second solo show at Tyburn Gallery, as well as having a public sculpture up in Regent’s Park for the summer of 2018 as part of Frieze Sculpture.