Toomey Tourell Fine Art is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of new works by Matthew Picton, entitled Fictional Perspectives.

Matthew Picton’s recent paper sculptures in this exhibition continue (and expand upon), Picton’s fascination with the mapped framework of the urban form. Using a variety of visual languages, including film, music, literature and art, he creates ambiguous and fictionalized narratives, deliberately blurring the boundaries of cartography, fantasy and perception. The exhibit will include three major new works – the Sculptures of St Petersburg 1703 – 1964; Moscow 1812; and Amsterdam “The Fall”.

St. Petersburg is a work that traces the cultural mirror of literature, incorporating the poetry of Alexander Pushkin and Anna Akhmatova and continuing with the post war writings of Joseph Brodsky. This sculpture also includes Shostakovich’s Ninth Symphony, written and performed during the siege of Leningrad during the years 1941-43.

The sculpture of Moscow is based upon the 1812 map depicting the damage incurred during that city’s burning. The sculpture is created from the music score of the famous 1812 overture by Tchaikovsky and includes a particularly prophetic quote from “War and Peace” by Tolstoy.

Amsterdam, The Fall, investigates and explores the Amsterdam of the 1940’s and 50’s from the perspective of the Albert Camus novel of the same title. Also, contained within the middle rings of Amsterdam’s canal district are handwritten excerpts from the last pages of the Diary of Anne Frank. The poignancy of these words echo from the vanished lives that “The Fall” references.

In addition to these works, there will be four London 1940 sculptures, created using the original bomb damage maps of London in 1940 that detailed the destruction bought to the city by the Air Raids. The works have been burnt in accordance with the destruction depicted on the maps, and the texts reference novels set in wartime London that reflect the varying experiences of life in the city during the war. These four London sculptures will also appear as the book cover to French sociologist Didier Eribon’s new book “Returning to Reims”, available this fall.

Lower Manhattan Smoke, September 12, 2001, Dallas Nov 23 1963 and London 1854, The Ghost Map will comprise the other available works. Within all of these compelling sculptures, layers of history, fiction, interpretation and reaction merge into multifaceted and retrospective images, which reference the past but also look to the future. The work combines the mortality of human endeavor with the impermanence of man-made structures, yet points to the enduring capacity of humanity for renewal and resurrection.

Matthew Picton has recently had solo shows in London and New York and received extensive press coverage for these exhibits. Recent coverage that has included a review in Art Forum magazine, features in Stern magazine, Germany, Das Bildt, Germany, PAGE magazine, Germany, Blueprint architecture magazine, (UK) Prospect magazine,(UK) Le Monde, France, The Independent, (UK) The Washington Post, Atlantic Cities and the James Joyce Quarterly. His work has been included in the collection of the Herbert Museum of Art, Coventry, UK, the De Young Museum, and recently has been acquired by the Stadt Museum Dresden. He received a Henry Moore Foundation grant for the work acquired by The Herbert Museum. His work is also on display at the James Joyce Museum in Dublin.

This is Picton’s fifth solo exhibition with Toomey Tourell. There will be a “Blurb Book” to accompany the exhibition, featuring images of the sculptures and containing essays and texts to provide background to each work. There is an e-book for this exhibition, which can be downloaded using the link below.