exhibition

The Flagmaker, new work by Matt Clark

22.Jan.10 - 21.Feb.10
Fri-Sun 11-6 or by appt

Gallery Primo Alonso
395-397 Hackney Road
London E2 8PP
020 7033 3678 / 07939 580 247
info@primoalonso.com
www.primoalonso.com
Tube Bethnal Green; BR Cambridge Heath, Hackney / Bethnal Green

Private View: Friday 22nd January 2010 6-9pm
Show runs: 22nd Jan – 21st Feb

‘I am a simple man I am a forgotten man. My mind is not wasted as I make flags and I wait for a time when I can leave with my flags to find a country that will take them.

To produce such things from such a small place as this, I feel is as honourable as any profession any man has made for himself. This place is dank with close walls; only my mind can travel me outside to where my honourable profession would be of any merit. I am a flag maker for a people who do not need flags. I can create a nation with a flurry of needlework, and a composition of ideals. ‘Why?’ you ask, ‘when all nations have flags do you continue in such a way that would make all current nations unrecognisable, why change their flags?’ let me tell you this; I see no nation here. Here in the underground where I make these objects nothing is recognisable to those who dwell above. No nation can call this place its own, yet I can tell little other difference between down here and up there.

Here, at this juncture, is a nation which belongs to the ants, here is a nation of rainless dust and stolen light. Here is an immoral place, ugly and rotten. I can little imagine a life where days exist without the imagination of what they must look like, where light is natural. My thoughts are of grass, whilst claustrophobia rules in my veins, this place is heartless. This is a place where rain comes from heaven and would only blot the page in my thoughts. Smoke lingers for days, and in turn, will turn the pages I write mustard yellow and relieving my lungs from natural breath.’
Matt Clark


Matt Clark depicts characters and their environments, drawn from his own imagined narratives merged with borrowed documents, unrealised projects and other fictions. For the residency at Primo Alonso the work will revolve around a character simply known as ‘The Flag Maker’, a man who has been underground for a thousand years, who attempts to find a use for his trade. Clark’s installation will explore the psychosis of the flag maker in relation to many of his unrealised projects meant for a time when he leaves the underground to meet what he imagines as the other underground. The history of the gallery will also come into question as he explores its former use as computer repair shop known as Madarin as a front for a money printing factory shut down in a police raid in 2005.



Notes to editors.

1. Gallery Primo Alonso is an emerging not-for-profit space on Hackney Road showcasing both emerging and established artists. Ideally situated in the heart of the East End, the gallery forms a part of the growing artistic community in the area. It endeavors to provide an approachable space for artists to show their work in an environment dedicated to the promotion of contemporary art. The three directors of this venture are Angelica Sule, Paul Murphy and Richard Gallagher.

2. Matt Clark was born in Oxford and studied his BA in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins. His work has been exhibited in several group and solo projects, the most recent being the BBC program ‘School of Saatchi’ in which he was one of the six artists featured. His work will also be part of the ‘Newspeak’ exhibition at the Saatchi gallery in June 2010.

3. This exhibition is the second in an annual residency program run by Gallery Primo Alonso. The residency aims to give artists the opportunity to develop their practice in the space that it will be shown. The residency will run from 15th Dec-20th Jan, the resulting show ‘The Flagmaker’ will then open on the 22nd Jan running until 21st Feb.

For press enquiries please contact
Angelica Sule: email: a.sule@primoalonso.com