SUPERMAJOR

Matt Kenyon (US)

Profile 

Matt Kenyon is an American artist based in the Metro Detroit area of Michigan, where he is also an Associate Professor in the Stamps School of Art and Design at the University of Michigan. From 1999-2012, SWAMP operated as a collaborative between Kenyon and Douglas Easterly. Kenyon now runs SWAMP solo.

His work has also been exhibited 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 SWAMP’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).

About the artwork 

What goes up must come down. These words describe not so much a scientific truth, but rather a common generalisation. This notion can be applied to a variety of things—from a ball thrown into the air to a stock market, which cannot continue to rise forever. All good things must come to an end. Right? The perceptual structures of the human brain enable individuals to see the world around them as stable, even though the sensory information may be incomplete and rapidly varying. Some of these perceptual structures are highly susceptible to manipulation. Seeing is not believing. Especially when the refresh rate of our reality hides the truth about our macabre fossil fuel faith. All around us people simultaneously hope and fear that our material abundance may never come to an end.