Matthew Houlding: Lagoon West

Lagoon West is a deserted land of swimming pools, sunsets, manicured gardens and beach house enclaves. A world where bespoke and meticulously built environments pay homage to the utopian zeal and pioneering spirit of the modernist dream. A vision which has become a collection of motifs that stimulate the memory of past glories and the imagination of future endeavour. Traces of human activity shimmer like fragments left behind in abandoned buildings. Peering over ledges and through tinted windows we witness echoes of memory and a lost future.

Making is central to Matthew Houlding’s practice, working with recycled materials, Perspex and ready-made objects. His collages and constructions are layered landscapes of materiality, surface, colour, shape and volume, in which he combines abstract and figurative elements inspired by the built environment and the natural world. Houlding’s style is graphic, colourful and hard-edged. Drawing on influences such as Pop Art, Minimalism and Constructivism, the work is ultimately grounded in formal sculptural and architectural concerns.

Matthew Houlding lives and works in West Yorkshire.