whatever returns from oblivion (for Louise Glück) | Reflective Paper, Duct Tape,
Reflective Tape, Hologram Stickers | Dimensions Variable | 2014
Artist Statement: The ontological question of “being in the world” provokes my work. How does art participate in the complexity of “being in the world”? How we touch the world, and each other, matters. My art engages in this conversation via light, quotidian materials, and architecture. Through the ephemeral and quick-silver properties of light, I think we can begin to know ourselves more. Thus, knowing how we fit into contexts, histories, ways of being. In a hurried and harried, capitalistic world, perhaps one of the most radical acts is sensing.
Charles Matson Lume is a visual artist whose art is engaged in the pas deux of light and matter. Like William Carlos William, Matson Lume believes, “It is difficult to get the news from poems yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there.” His installations have been exhibited at institutions such as: the Irish Museum of Modern Art, (Dublin, Ireland), Babel Kunst (Trondheim, Norway), Kemijärvi Art Gallery, (Kemijärvi, Finland), and Hunter College, (NYC). Charles has received fellowships from the Bush Foundation, Jerome Foundation, and the Minnesota State Arts Board. He has participated in artist residencies located in: Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Ireland, and the US. Charles holds an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and lives in Saint Paul, MN. His art can be found online at the curated artist registry of White Columns (NYC).