Mater / Stories

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

The first in a series of Case Studies - I will be writing about artists & researchers who shift my perspective on the material world. I wrote a version of this essay in 2020, and have re-visited it in 2024. Written by Maddie Rose Hills

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

The first Mater exhibition took place in March 2024 in Amsterdam. Read about it here

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