Fashion is more than something you wear to clothe with, it is a way of expressing, identifying, and representing through being bold, powerful, accessible, innovative, and inclusively unmistakable. Matthew Cook’s art explores the aesthetics of where he is from through the events and perceptions people have of Saint Louis, Missouri. Conceptualizing race, gender, sexuality, and body image, the assumptions of how particular groups should act, look, think, or talk like are the core of his work. Manipulating materials through intense draping, complex patternmaking, and quality construction balance the eclectic and vibrant choices of materially that provides multiple perceptions of his work.
Raw Reality - Pants, 2021, fake hair, chains, hoops, crystals, tyvek, nylon, and polyester
Raw Reality - Deflated Tops, 2021, fake hair, chains, hoops, crystals, tyvek, nylon, and polyester
Raw Reality - Inflated Tops, 2021, fake hair, chains, hoops, crystals, tyvek, nylon, and polyester
Raw Reality - Group picture, 2021, fake hair, hoops, crystals, tyvek, nylon, and polyester
Raw Reality - Look 1, 2021, crystals and nylon
Raw Reality - Look 1, 2021, crystals and nylon
Raw Reality - Look 2, 2021, fake hair, crystals, tyvek, nylon, and polyester
Raw Reality - Look 2, 2021, fake hair, crystals, tyvek, nylon, and polyester
Raw Reality - Look 3, 2021, fake hair, hoops, crystals, tyvek, nylon, and polyester
Raw Reality - Look 3, 2021, fake hair, hoops, crystals, tyvek, nylon, and polyester
Using the mediums of performance, video, and instillation I want to dive into the concepts and material of shame, pain, and memories to explore the issues and deep-rooted experiences that still affect me today. This is references back a lot to when I was younger especially during my transitional period from schools and cities
around the age of 8-9, then comparing that to another point in my life, junior year of high school, where I had to make a decision about the rest of my life; college, and
then what path I wanted to choose, what made me happy or what made the people around me happy. Along with this, the concept or meaning can come from anything
as long as it’s authentic to myself and expresses the deep-rooted experience of my life. Looking into the future, I want to create something that has more of an interactive element and something that can have multiple interpretations and is pulled from multiple sources of my life because I have a multi-faceted experience, so the
work needs to reflect that as well. I am doing this because I feel that I need to have closure and understanding for this part of my life that digs at my very existence
daily. I often try to mask it and hide from it and forget that its there by focusing on other issues, but in reality it just causes a deeper issues. The meaning of this work is not only to help myself better understand and overcome these issues that conflict and complex my existence and identity, but also help other people that are going through these same issues and hopefully it will give them something they can relate to and expand on in their own lives.