Matt Kenyon
Ann Arbor, MI
Residency: April – May 2015
Residency Project
“Non Aes, Sed Fides”
Not Money, But Trust
-translated inscription on Maltese coin 1567
This work investigates the impact of the destruction of public faith in the economy and personal fortune through the unique spectacle of material phase transition. Viewers must continually negotiate between events in their own lives and the mind-boggling complex media constructed image of our economy. At the core of this project is the construction of a contrasting lens that allows for a clearer perspective of the events of the financial collapse.Giant Pool of Money examines the thoughts and beliefs that lead to the global financial crisis. Each piece in this series responds to a specific site that played an important role in oversight of the global financial system. These sites will include foreclosed homes, defunct banks, mortgage offices and accounting offices. At these sites, I will present a critical view of the global financial crisis where machines and materials function as metaphor for individuals and markets of exchange
About the Artist
S.W.A.M.P. (Studies of Work Atmosphere and Mass Production) focuses on critical themes addressing the effects of global corporate operations, mass media and communication, military industrial complexes, and general meditations on the liminal area between life and artificial life. S.W.A.M.P. has been making work in this vein since 1999 using a wide range of media, including custom software, electronics, mechanical devices, and often times working with living organisms. S.W.A.M.P. was founded in 1999 as a collaboration between the artists Douglas Easterly and Matt Kenyon.
In 2012, S.W.A.M.P. began operating under the sole direction of Mr. Kenyon. Kenyon is also an Associate Professor in the School of Art and Design at the University of Michigan in the United States. The practice has participated in numerous collaborations with artists, architects, and technologists, including McLain Clutter, Tiago Rorke and Wafaa Bilal. S.W.A.M.P.’s work has been exhibited internationally and collected by institutions including the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It has received a number of awards including the distinguished FILE Prix Lux Art prize. Reproductions of S.W.A.M.P.’s work have been featured in mainstream publications such as Wired and Gizmodo, and also appear in edited volumes such as A Touch of Code (Gestalten Press) and Adversarial Design (MIT Press).
Kenyon was born in 1977, in Baton Rouge Louisiana, USA. His father was a paper salesman for 30 years, and is now a hospice worker and his stepmother a crisis councilor at the last leper colony in the USA. Kenyon’s mother was a lunchroom cook and an aspiring painter, stepfather, an alcoholic Vietnam veteran, worked as a part time sideshow act climbing into sleeping bags filled with rattlesnakes.