Stories
Conversations about materials
Malachite and the Origins of Copper
Victoria King
From the Bronze Age to the Information Age, metals have shaped civilization. This article investigates smelting: how copper is formed from the mineral malachite, looking at its historical significance in Britain and why the current use of copper is changing. This isn’t a complete history of metallurgy or a guide for smelting; it’s a journey of discovery that hopefully sparks inspiration.
30 June 2026
Material Uncertainty and Regulating Infinity
Lucienne O'Mara & Reece Jones
Lucienne O’Mara & Reece Jones in conversation for Mater. Lucienne’s studio, Herne Hill, London. May 2026
30 June 2026
(Un) Productive Bodies
Dr Ellie Barrett
Originally published in Ellie Barrett’s blog. Shared with authors permission. Trigger warnings: postpartum haemorrhage, infertility.
24 June 2026
Airing Ideas Through Matter
Annemarie Piscaer
The founder of Studio Dust reflects on unseen yet rich matter of air
24 June 2026
Dark Holding (Drawing with Jet)
Hondartza Fraga
Dark Holding is the title for my ongoing material investigation into Whitby jet as both drawing medium and subject. The project explores processes of transformation, loss and preservation through drawing, object-making and installation.
24 June 2026
Dust and Exhaustion
Jussi Parikka
The Labor of Media Materialism
24 June 2026
Reading by Osmosis, Nature Interprets Us
Semâ Bekirovic
It’s not immediately clear what we are looking at: out-of-focus, dynamic, seemingly abstract dark green and black shapes accompanied by strange underwater sounds. Jerky camera movements add to the sense of disorientation. Then a sucker attaches itself to the lens. Slowly, the screen is engulfed by alien-looking tentacles.
24 June 2026
My Brownspace, Your Brownspace
Zivarna Murphy
Dr Zivarna Murphy is a research-based ceramic artist, having trained in Medical Anthropology and holding a PhD in Human Sciences she brings emergent themes around the social aspects of body and organ donation, into her ceramic vessels
24 June 2026
Paint is a Concept
Sabine Pinon
I. What is paint?
24 June 2026
In Collaboration With Woad
Louisa Chase
Working closely with woad in my ecosomatic art practice over the space of a year; historical, sociocultural and ecological researches and embodied explorations with/in the liminal terrain of the Fens.
24 June 2026
Collecting with Emma Witter
Maddie Rose Hills
Originally commissioned by artist Emma Witter, in responce to her latest series Tender Gatherings: a collection of her photographs of found, grouped objects.
10 January 2026
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…
28 March 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’.
31 October 2024
Ellie Niblock on 3D Modelling and Virtual World Building
Pigmented silicone, flocking fibres, and trial & error,
28 June 2024
Seeds with Zayaan Khan & Chris Keeve
The Mater Podcast - Episode 3
14 June 2024
The Thames Foreshore with Tom Chivers & Dr Claire Harris
11 June 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.
28 May 2024
Michelle’s Stuart’s Niagara Gorge Path Relocated: The cyclical nature of the things
Maddie Rose Hills
In 1975, American artist Michelle Stuart left a 140 metre sheet of heavy-duty rag paper hung over the side of a gorge in New York state. The paper was bashed with rocks and Iron (III) Oxide sourced from the gorge. The paper was left there, exposed to the elements, until it eventually, wholly disintegrated.
25 April 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
11 March 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
7 March 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
6 March 2024
The Metamorphosis of Matter
Exhibition Text: The first Mater exhibition, 2024, Amsterdam
14 February 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
23 October 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.
28 September 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
12 September 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
30 August 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
30 August 2023
Laura Cinti: C-LAB
On Bio art, living materials, and a search for one of the most endangered organisms on Earth
1 July 2023
Hanneke ter Horst on Plants & Pigments
This conversation with Hanneke describes beautifully the pull that certain materials can have on people
23 February 2023
Tom Pope on Photography
Participation, research, play, performance, and ferns. We discuss the artist’s photography practice
13 February 2023
Razia Barsatie on Food
Researching the histories of food, and using them as art materials
9 January 2023
Lieve Hakkers on Paint
Lieve Hakkers discusses pigments, egg tempera, and how making paint has affected their work
8 December 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.
19 October 2022
Christian Keeve on Seeds
The cooperative geographies and political ecologies of participatory seed networks.
30 September 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
22 September 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.
22 September 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.
21 September 2022