Mater explores materials through the eyes of artists and researchers.

A Research Residency at West Dean

Mater host Maddie Rose Hills went on a Research Residency to West Dean school of Art, Craft and Conservation, where she was investigating what draws people to certain materials. Here are some notes from the residency..

March 28, 2025

An Ting Teng on Collecting & Time

From collecting and documenting found objects which have been shaped by slow geological forces, through to alternative printing and photographic processes, Annie Teng creates a 'dialogue between time, texture, and memory'.

October 31, 2024

Ellie Niblock on 3D Modelling and Virtual World Building

Pigmented silicone, flocking fibres, and trial & error,

June 28, 2024

Seeds with Zayaan Khan & Chris Keeve

The Mater Podcast - Episode 3

June 14, 2024

The Thames Foreshore with Tom Chivers & Dr Claire Harris

Welcome to the Mater Podcast

June 11, 2024

Agnes Waruguru on Rituals & Connections

Creating spacial installations with sculptures and bedsheets dyed/painted with hibiscus, saffron and turmeric residues. We discuss place & connection, beadwork, collecting sounds of the wind, studio rituals, and questions about trade and labour.

May 28, 2024

Michelle’s Stuart’s Niagara Gorge Path Relocated: The cyclical nature of the things

Case Study: Artists & researchers who shift perspectives on the material world.

April 25, 2024

Mayra Sergio on Coffee, Olive Oil & Pulverised Residue

Sergio is an artist who has developed many new processes through experimentation, trial and error, intrigue, looking to process grief, build belonging, and being very open to happy accidents

March 11, 2024

Bosco Sodi on Unpredictable Materials

The artist's work highlights the passing of time, and unpredictable processes that allow materials to behave in organic ways

March 7, 2024

Jun Zhang on Systems & Stories

The artist discusses mythology, extraction, looking at the world through a non-anthropocentric lens, and researching the significant and varied roles of urine

March 6, 2024

The Metamorphosis of Matter

Exhibition Text: The first Mater exhibition, 2024, Amsterdam

February 14, 2024

Deborah Tchoudjinoff on Virtual Worlds and Fictions

Deborah’s work de-centres the human and engages with research on minerals and speculative fictions. We discuss a diverse range of projects involving mineral mapping, augmented reality and gaming engines

October 23, 2023

Janne Schimmel on Gaming Devices

Investigating the inner workings of old computers and modular gaming-computer building. Janne talks about gaming as a participatory culture, the planned obsolescence of computers, animating and bringing soft qualities to devices.

September 28, 2023

Catinca Malaimare on Leather

We walk through Catinca Malaimare's exhibition Astropriest at Brooke Benington, discussing saddles and leather jackets as pre-used objects that hold bodies

September 12, 2023

Jindřiška Jabůrková on Rubble & Weathered Buildings

Working with the transformation of materials to highlight matter as a living substance. We also speak about concrete, human hair, New materialsms and spirituality

August 30, 2023

Rajyashri Goody on Pulp & Porcelain

A conversation about Dalit histories and the caste system, and how experimenting with materials can be used to tell stories

August 30, 2023

Laura Cinti: C-LAB

On Bio art, living materials, and a search for one of the most endangered organisms on Earth

July 1, 2023

Hanneke ter Horst on Plants & Pigments

This conversation with Hanneke describes beautifully the pull that certain materials can have on people

February 23, 2023

Tom Pope on Photography

Participation, research, play, performance, and ferns. We discuss the artist's photography practice

February 13, 2023

Razia Barsatie on Food

Researching the histories of food, and using them as art materials

January 9, 2023

Lieve Hakkers on Paint

Lieve Hakkers discusses pigments, egg tempera, and how making paint has affected their work

December 8, 2022

Marlies Augustijn on Water

Marlies Augustijn is a curator, currently based in Rotterdam. We speak about her most recent curatorial project Still Waters Run Deep, a group exhibition at Amsterdam's NDSM Warf.

October 19, 2022

Christian Keeve on Seeds

The cooperative geographies and political ecologies of participatory seed networks.

September 30, 2022

Miriam Sentler: Deep Time Agency

Miriam Sentler's recent project explores a quarry in Maastricht, and how this relates to the cement industry through layers of time.

September 22, 2022

Emma Witter on Bone

Mater speaks to artist Emma Witter about bone: sculpting with it, what it's made from, and how to prepare it

September 22, 2022

Grant Gibson: Material Matters

The Material Matters fair launches in London this week. Mater talks to one of the founders, Grant Gibson, about where his fascination for materials came from.

September 21, 2022