Matthew Sleeth (visual artist)


Matthew Sleeth is an Australian visual artist and filmmaker. His often collaborative practice incorporates photography, film, sculpture and installation with a particular focus on the aesthetic and conceptual concerns of new media. The performative and photographic nature of media art is regularly highlighted in his work.

Early life

Sleeth was born in 1972 and grew up in Melbourne. His father was a keen amateur photographer who taught him to make photographs in the darkroom from an early age.

Career

Matthew Sleeth's early career is defined through three photographic monographs. Roaring Days, is the only one showing his work with black & white photography, played with nostalgia and politics. The Bank Book is a response to the making of a feature film. Tour of Duty, explores the performance/performative aspect of armed conflict as seen during the 1999 East Timorese crisis.
In 2001, he was named one of the 30 most influential artists under 30 in PDN Magazine.
In 2005/6 Sleeth lived in Tokyo as part of the Australia Council’s studio residency program. Then, in 2007, he was featured on the cover of Australian Art Collector magazine.
Following the publication of Opfikon in 2004, Sleeth's practice became more conceptually driven. 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". The Aperture Foundation's Exposures Blog described his New York solo exhibition, Various Positions , as "working toward a new photographic aesthetic". 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.
His work with 3D printing and CNC fabrication led to Sleeth's sculptural installation, The Rise and Fall of Western Civilization . This concrete freeway combined photography, metal, plywood and micro-computers with LED displays.
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 and Kerobokan Portraits .
In 2015 Sleeth co-wrote and directed A Drone Opera. 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. In June 2019, a cinematic version of A Drone Opera was screened at the Sydney Film Festival and a three-channel film installation was presented at Carriageworks, Sydney.
Sleeth's work with Myuran Sukumaran at Kerobokan Prison and the campaign to save Sukumaran and Andrew Chan from execution, fuelled the development of 2017's Guilty. 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. Guilty premiered at the Adelaide Film Festival on 8 October 2017 and was released by Madman Entertainment on DVD in April 2020.

Filmography

Film festivals

Guilty, Adelaide Film Festival, premiere, 2017Guilty, Human Rights Film Festival, 2018Guilty, Dili International Film Festival, 2018A Drone Opera, Sydney Film Festival, premiere, 2019

Live performance

A Drone Opera - commissioned by Experimenta Media Arts and presented by Arts House at Meat Market, Melbourne, September 2015.Prize Fighter - presented by La Boite Theatre and Melbourne International Arts Festival, October 2018.

Monographs

Roaring Days Tour of Duty home + away Survey Opfikon
  • ''Ten Series/106 Photographs''

Collections

Sleeth's work is held in the following public collections:

Solo exhibitions

Short Stories, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne 1996Boys, Prostitutes Collective of Victoria, Melbourne 1997Silvers Circus, Leica Gallery, Solms, Germany 1998Roaring Days, Stills Gallery, Sydney 1998Roaring Days, Photographers’ Gallery, Melbourne 1998Roaring Days, Saba Gallery, New York 2000Tour of Duty, Boccalero Gallery, Los Angeles 2001Roaring Days, Leica Gallery, Tokyo 2001Tour Of Duty, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne 2002Feet, Citylights, Melbourne 2003Survey, Josef Lebovic Gallery at The Depot, Sydney 2004Tour Of Duty, Galerie Lichtblick, Cologne 2004Red China, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne 2005Rosebud, Fremantle Prison, Fotofreo Festival, Fremantle, Western Australia 2006Pictured, Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne 2006Call Of The Wild, Fyrtøjet, Odense Photo Triennial, Denmark. 200612 Views of Mount Fuji, Jan Manton Art, Brisbane 2007Mixed Tape, Sophie Gannon Gallery, Melbourne 2007Ten Series, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney 2007Ten Series, Aperture Gallery, New York 2008Matthew Sleeth, Claire Oliver Gallery, Next 08 @ Art Chicago, USA 2008Pattern Recognition, Sophie Gannon Gallery & multiple site specific public installations Melbourne International Arts Festival, Melbourne 2008Various Positions Parts 1-6, Claire Oliver Gallery, New York 2009The Rise and Fall of Western Civilization , Claire Oliver Gallery, New York 2011The Generative Freeway Project, Tin Sheds Gallery, Sydney, 2013The Last Carpark, WestSpace, Melbourne 2013Representation and Reproduction: a love story, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, 2014Intentionally Left Blank, Trocadero Art Space, Melbourne 2014Magnificent Obsessions, Claire Oliver Gallery, New York 2015Rules to Live By, Claire Oliver Gallery, New York 2016The End, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne 2017It Was All A Dream, Pulse, Miami 2017Rosebud, Town Hall Gallery, Melbourne 2018A Drone Opera, Carriageworks, Sydney 2019A Drone Opera, Lyon Housemuseum, Melbourne 2020A Drone Opera, Ars Electronica, Austria 2020