MEMBERS
Dancer, Photographer, Writer
Cardiff/Oslo/Stockholm
About:
Charles 'Charlie' Matthews is a young dancer and self-taught photographer/writer from Cardiff. He's based in Oslo and Stockholm.
“In 2020, the pandemic and loss of equilibrium led to a reframing of my artistic practice. I turned to photography and writing in lieu of dance. In my written work I explore masculinity, class, grief and longing, often in relation to landscape. My photography is a tender documentation of local flora and 'urban nature' but the body, a dancer's most important material, is missing in the same way the working-class body is denied access to art institutions and establishments. I'm inspired by the tradition of expressing queerness through one's love of flowers, the queer plantsmen before my time, with an awareness that these were men from predominantly well-to-do backgrounds. I'm interested in the physicality of grief and absence. How working-class identities are shaped by the landscape and lack of access to gardens, quiet spaces and nature.”