Matthew Darbyshire's work deals with the numbing yet infinitely seductive hallmark of lifestyle aspiration. His domestic assemblages function as models of modern living - displays that might represent ‘today’ in design museums or shop windows. Their studied genericism and fetishistic staging doubles as a form of portraiture. Drawing inspiration from novelists such as JG Ballard and Bret Easton Ellis, Darbyshire conceives his sculptures in relation to shopping theory: we are what we buy, and use our belongings to project a desired image of ourselves. For example, Untitled: Furniture Island No. 2, furnished with well-known affordable brand name goods, invites speculation on the type of person who might have this as their living environment. Its clinical hipness paints an ironic image of tragic yuppie-ness: chances are you probably own at least one of the items on display.
Possibly it is man's fetishistic approach to objects and interior that interests me. Its role in our perception and projection of self. its striving to convince and seduce. However I am completely guilty of materialism and perhaps even 'clinical hipness' so I do think that it this aspect of the domestic that I am in a position to criticise or indeed would wish to draw attention to.
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