Career
Matthew Sleeth's early career is defined through three photographic monographs. [3] Roaring Days, [4] [5] is the only one showing his work with black & white photography, played with nostalgia and politics. [6] [7] The Bank Book [8] is a response to the making of a feature film. Tour of Duty, [9] explores the performance/performative aspect of armed conflict as seen during the 1999 East Timorese crisis. [7]
In 2001, he was named one of the 30 most influential artists under 30 in PDN Magazine. [10]
In 2005/6 Sleeth lived in Tokyo as part of the Australia Council’s studio residency program. [3] Then, in 2007, he was featured on the cover of Australian Art Collector magazine. [11]
Following the publication of Opfikon in 2004, Sleeth's practice became more conceptually driven. [12] His work expanded from photography and video to include sculpture, print-making and installation. Pattern Recognition, an exhibition of public billboards for the 2008 Melbourne International Arts Festival, was described as exploring "ideas about photography itself and the way it has historically been used to order and categorise life". [13] The Aperture Foundation's Exposures Blog described his New York solo exhibition, Various Positions (parts 1 through 6), as "working toward a new photographic aesthetic". [14] It opened at Claire Oliver Gallery in Chelsea, Manhattan on 18 March 2009.
Sleeth has consistently embraced new technologies and methods of production, working with 3D printing, aerial drones, electronics and computer programming. [15]
His work with 3D printing and CNC fabrication led to Sleeth's sculptural installation, The Rise and Fall of Western Civilization (And Other Obvious Metaphors). This concrete freeway combined photography, metal, plywood and micro-computers with LED displays. [16]
As his film practice evolved, Sleeth's interest in performance became more apparent, particularly in video works such as I Don't See God Up Here [17] and Kerobokan Portraits [Andrew and Myuran]. [18]
In 2015 Sleeth co-wrote and directed A Drone Opera. [19] Presented by Arts House and Experimenta, the live performance combined opera singers, laser set-design and purpose-built drones to bring together the sense of surveillance and menace that explores our relationship with new technologies. [20] In June 2019, a cinematic version of A Drone Opera was screened at the Sydney Film Festival [21] and a three-channel film installation was presented at Carriageworks, Sydney. [22]
Sleeth's work with Myuran Sukumaran [23] at Kerobokan Prison [24] [25] and the campaign to save Sukumaran and Andrew Chan from execution, fuelled the development of 2017's Guilty. [26] In his feature film debut, Sleeth highlighted the final 72 hours of Sukumaran's life and questions the use of execution as a means of punishment. [27] Guilty premiered at the Adelaide Film Festival on 8 October 2017 [28] and was released by Madman Entertainment on DVD in April 2020. [29]
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