The Artist Interview Series

Matthew Steinke, September 2005

Teresa: Matt, from seeing your work on the web (www.matthewsteinke.com) as well the studio visit Randall Garrett and I had with you at your studio in Chicago, I have had the opportunity to see the diverse way in which you work.  Your work includes installation, sound, animatronics, sculpture and stop-motion animation.  Would you discuss the distinction between the ways of working or is there a distinction for you?

Matt: If you look at my work you will notice that it explores the phenomenology of experience. That is why it takes the form of time-based media. When I decided to start making visual work in 1994 after a four-year hiatus of strictly music performance and composition, I wanted to continue to develop the musical elements of time, texture, and modality into my audio/visual work. My mom, a painter and an art historian, introduced me to the interdisciplinary work of Duchamp and Cage at an early age so I knewthat it could be done.

Teresa: Currently you are the project resident at Commerce Street and you are working on Reverse Plane of Cloudy for your show opening September 10.  Would you tell me a little about the show as well as the stimulus for its concept?

Matt: I chose the title, “Reverse Plane of Cloudy” because it sounded partial and shadowy. This idea of the vague and unresolved interests me. I wanted to create a space that was inhabited by ghosts. In the case of “Letter to the South” I chose a historical figure, Thomas Jefferson. He is not the Thomas Jefferson that we know from history books. Instead, he is like my grandfather before he died, an unbelievably old man with transparent skin and velcro sneakers– an anachronism. And for some reason he never died and he’s still here in the 21st century surrounded by technology and donut wrappers.

Teresa: About the future and recent past, what are your plans after you leave Commerce Street and would you tell me what you were doing shortly before you arrived in Houston?

Matt: Before I came to Houston, I spent some time visiting friends in Europe. I was thinking of moving there permanently. The States– its culture, politics, and lack of arts funding, disheartened me. I wanted to perhaps move to Holland and squat in an abandon building and make art for more liberally minded individuals. Things really are better for artists over there. They get government money and health care. After a month, however, I started missing the stress and turmoil of being poor and frustrated. I noticed that around Europe the contemporary European art felt more like experimental design than personally driven. There were no Mike Kelly's or Paul McCarthy's. I think it is because they are so content and they don’t have anything to gripe about or any annoying people to contest with or conflicts over morality. So, I decided not to leave the States and to face my problems. I like to argue and make work that confronts both liberal and conservative values. I don’t want to hide away in a comfortable place were everyone agrees with me. I love challenge even if I have to work hard to exist.

I will be leaving Houston soon and I plan to join the artist flock to Brooklyn, New York. My next art endeavor, however, involves traveling outside of New York. I plan to orchestrate a multimedia performance and to tour the country and hopefully bring it through Houston in the next year or so.

Teresa: Okay, so I have to ask, and this question is posed from having the opportunity to spend some time with you. Does Choco (Matt's amazing cat) ever inform the way you work or what you make?

Matt: Choco is far superior to any form of art. I could never make anything as cool as a cat.  And with all of his cat features, he is even more of a person. Late at night he comes to get me to go to bed.  He makes me healthy and happy. His weird brain and his moods inspire me as well. His decision-making process is amusing. Sometimes, my work time is his play-time and they converge as he makes off with a small tool/toy and I chase him to recover it. He does this strange dance on top of one of his stuffed animals during which he makes a moaning sound. I have no idea what its about but he has been doing it since I got him.