Matthew Bindert - Artist[email protected]
I was raised in a family that fostered many children from broken and abusive homes, and exposed very early in life to a world that gave me a heightened sense of awareness. I became more aware of the inequality, injustice, and harsh realities of life during my travel and volunteer work overseas and in my everyday experiences. I derive intense emotion from these observations and experiences; this emotion is evident in the aggressive and intense carving of my woodcut’s that range in scales of three by four feet to four by twelve feet. The resulting images are both representational and abstracted while revolving around the interconnected issues engendered by globalization; issues such as poverty, war, consumerism, exploitation, and the conservation of nature and culture. I view woodblock printing as a means to a direct connection and collaboration with nature by working with such a natural medium. My work is intended to promote social awareness, question popular culture, and inspire viewers to travel overseas and expand their influences. I strongly believe that it’s important for people to try to understand other cultures and environments so that they can better understand the diverse and changing communities around them. New Work This body of work is an expressive and conceptual response to globalizations dual nature of being a force for good and extreme destruction at the same time. The work represents the complex social, religious, economic, health, environmental, and political interdependence of the world today. I believe that the crises we face today need to be addressed with an interconnected approach to finding solutions. DNA charting, textiles, camouflage, past and present empirical structure’s, and military arsenal are just some elements I have drawn from these areas of influence that inspired the abstract patterns that I use as symbols. I incorporate woodblock printing, serigraphy, and painting in the process of creating mixed media works on both traditional and upcycled materials. It is a repetitious and intuitive process that involves an enormous amount of carving, printing, and painting. |