The Red Gallery hosts Matthew Hawtin exhibition

  • Share
  • Dimensions will show most of Hawtin's visual work for Minus and Plus 8 since 1993.
  • The Red Gallery hosts Matthew Hawtin exhibition image
  • Next month, The Red Gallery in London will host an exhibit of Matthew Hawtin's visual art for Minus and Plus 8. The brothers Hawtin have always shared a love of the minimal aesthetic, though each expressed it through different medium: Richie through his productions and DJ sets, Matthew through his abstract visual art. This led to a convenient working relationship, with Matthew designing most of the artwork for his brother's labels since the early '90s. Entitled "Dimensions," the upcoming exhibition at The Red Gallery will include pieces that originally appeared on record sleeves for Minus or Plus 8, as well as selections from Hawtin's most recent series, "Torqued Panels." We caught up with Hawtin over email this week to for more insight on the exhibit and the method behind his work:
    Will the exhibit be a comprehensive collection of the work you've done for Minus and Plus 8? Will any other work be included? The exhibition is the most comprehensive overview of my collaborative work with Minus and Plus 8 to date. It brings together work from 1993 to the present, including paintings, prints, drawings and sculpture. It is a very unique exhibition since many of pieces have never been seen before in the UK or in a gallery setting, yet most are known through their associated music release. I've included two pieces from my newest series, the Torqued Panels, in order to give a decent overview of my work and to show my aesthetic trajectory over the years. Interestingly, since then, we have decided to use the drawings as artwork for future Plus 8 releases, an example of how my visual work sometimes "fits" with the music and aesthetic concerns of the labels. When you make cover art for a record, how does the process work? Do you always hear the music first? How does it influence your imagery? Each release is different; some of the artwork is already made and aesthetically "describes" the music, while other pieces are more a "tuning-in" of the music within my own aesthetic. There is definitely no direct path from music to art or vice versa. Obviously it helps that I'm still involved with Minus and Plus 8 and know what is happening musically, though this has never consciously influenced my aesthetic decisions. Like most artists, for the most part you just have to do what you do and if it's liked by other people or can represent something besides what it was made for, sometimes that's just a bonus. What's been your most satisfying piece of music-related artwork? Historically, I still feel that the F.U.S.E. paintings succinctly express the music on the albums and that time in the history of electronic music. More recently, the artwork for VOID, an experimental project by Gaiser came together very smoothly. In this case I was fortunate to have had the music a year before it was released and was playing it in my DJ sets. I think this helped me understand the music better, making it easier to translate my "idea" of the music into something visual. It's a bit uncanny how well your art complements the records on Minus and Plus 8. How is it that you and your brother both find the minimalist aesthetic so compelling? A tough question to answer. In general I think it has to do with us being so close when we started our journey with electronic music and then sharing similar experiences over the years through living, working and travelling together, and interpreting these experiences in different creative mediums. Ironically, we are still very different in terms of our personalities and how we exist in the world. We can usually find a commonality on aesthetic interests and we both enjoy the "less is more" philosophy, though if you look at my brother's DJ schedule you might think otherwise.
    "Dimensions" will run from the 3rd through the 26th of February. On the Friday before it ends, The Red Gallery will host a party where Jon Gaiser will present his new live act as Void, with DJ sets from Toi Toi resident Claus Voigtmann and The Red Gallery's Charlotte Michelle 11th. Tickets to that one are available here on RA.

RA