The Absurd World of Mack Mathod : Cereal Absurdist

Back by popular demand. A chance to re-enter the absurd world of Mack Mathod Cereal Absurdist.

Press release in the words of Mack Mathod:

My work, whether performed or constructed, is in the tradition of the Surrealists, Dadaists, the Theatre of the Absurd and post Russian Revolutionary writers and performers.  I strive to reintroduce humour and stupidity into an over serious contemporary art format, an aspect which I see as an important generic omission since the sixties.

My present work is printed on handmade paper and presented in antique frames with printed texts to suggest an absurd curated world that we can only view from a distance of time and sobriety.

My constructed and performed work has a similarly meaningless perspective .

I have been an absurdist all of my life. In the seventies, after leaving Leeds College of Art I worked in absurd performances all over the country. I have been a comedy scriptwriter, performer, director, and educator and, over the past ten years have been manipulating ideas through photographic found images. I have a strong belief that humour needs to be redefined in its role in Contemporary Art. I am actively, and continually, reassessing the absurd, the meaningless and ridiculousness, once a staple diet of sixties creativity, in an attempt to reintroduce that mindset into twenty first century artforms.

“Mack Mathod’s work presents a humorous way of repurposing objects and materials that have had a previous life. They have been brought into the contemporary by re-presenting them in response to current daily life. He is also playing on historical and museum contexts and display by presenting them in such a way as to make them appear truthful remnants of history. While performing as serious and factual, this work is imbued with comical wit and absurdity. Its playful grave humour is reflective and pokes fun at the way we take art and art practice so seriously.”

  (Citation for Best Newcomer Award at the Peterborough Open Biennial 2016)

More information about the exhibition can be found here

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