Media 
United Kingdom
The Great British Enthusiast
An exhibition of street photography by Vauxhall Collective Matt Stuart
2010-10-13
Share This
Derby QUAD
Market Place, Cathedral Quarter, Derby
Exhibition Dates: 13/11/10 – 16/01/11
Street photographer Matt Stuart shows British heart at its greatest as he captures enthusiasts in the throes of diverse obsessions for a Vauxhall Collective commission.
Britain’s unheralded enthusiasts are documented in Matt Stuart’s observational street photography. As intrigued by these subjects as they are obsessed by their varying hobbies, Matt is increasingly drawn by their relentless passion and sense of community. Journeying far and wide to witness their pastimes, he has generated an amusing and astounding series of photographs, to be exhibited at Derby QUAD from 13th November 2010 to 16th January 2011.
As photography category winner of the Vauxhall Collective bursary, a scheme supporting art and design in the UK now in its third year, Matt was commissioned by Vauxhall Motors to create a series of photographs as a response to this year’s theme, ‘The Great British Weekend.’ Given free rein in a new Vauxhall Astra, Matt travelled throughout Britain as part of his ‘Enthusiast’ tour, capturing an array of weirdly wonderful weekend pursuits in action.
As one of the UK’ leading Street Photographers, Matt Stuart has the ability to tell incredible stories through photography. His characteristic humour and ability to see, and record, the world around us from an utterly unique viewpoint are just spectacular. Through capturing incredible fleeting and absurd moments in the 'everyday,' the street photography of Matt Stuart can give us inspiration and insight, in order to look again at our streets with new eyes. After all art is the ability to see the extraordinary in the ordinary – Louise Clemens, artistic Director, Quad and Format
From cyclists and marathon runners to chess champions and plane spotters, Matt Stuart’s subjects are not your middle-of-the-road fanatics. These are the lesser known ones – extraordinary people who get up early on a Saturday morning to engage in the physically dangerous, such as the parkour jumpers photographed in Waterloo, or the painstakingly patient, like the plane spotters outside Heathrow. Others featuring in Matt’s new series of photographs include runners at the Edinburgh Marathon, Stevie Wonder fans, cyclists at Southbank, junior chess champions, elderly dancers at a tea dance in Spitalfields, visitors to the Henley Regatta, kite enthusiasts in Portsmouth and participants in the 1645 Battle of Basing re-enactment in Basingstoke. After a long week at the office or at school, their versions of the Great British Weekend are like no other.
Committed himself not only to photography but also cycling and book collecting, Matt understands the fanatic’s quarry. In this extraordinary photographic exhibition, Matt invites us to celebrate each of these Great British Enthusiasts, in all their many guises.
Matt Stuart will be joining the rest of the Vauxhall Collective winners, from throughout its three year history, to participate in an exciting exhibition, Vauxhall Collective: A Retrospective. The show will cover all of the Collective’s 14 projects, spanning all of the different categories: Fine Art, Craft & Design, Photography, Film & Fashion and Theatre. The exhibition will take place at Idea Generation Gallery in Shoreditch, London, from 2nd to 7th November 2010.
Address:
Derby QUAD, Market Place, Cathedral Quarter, Derby, DE1 3AS
How to get there:
Derby Rail Station, 15 minute walk
Opening Hours:
Monday-Thursday 10am-11pm, Friday and Saturday 10am-11pm, Sunday 11am-10pm
Matt Stuart
Matt Stuart is a ‘street photographer’ with an impeccable eye for capturing fleeting surreal moments from mundane situations. He spent his teenage years skateboarding and discovered photography after his father bought him books by Henri Cartier Bresson and Robert Frank. He started assisting photographers in 1997 and after 3 years of travel decided to try and make it on his own.
Since 2000 he has worked for numerous clients, his ability to make the common place notable has lead to high profile commissions with The Tate, LSO, Vodafone, Sainsbury’s, British Land, Insead and Sony Ericsson. These commissions have been hugely diverse. His Tate work centred on juxtaposing visual elements of people in front with works of art on show in the galleries, whilst his MFI project showed human situations arising in the strange showroom set-up. From a baby lying beneath Louise Bourgeois’ looming spider, to a man sitting fully clothed in a bath in the middle of MFI, his shots have a great deal of humour and human warmth.
As well as commissioned work, Matt has continued obsessively shooting on the street and has lectured about street photography at The Tate, Oxford University, The Museum of the city of New York and various other universities. This year Matt is included in two books about Street Photography. In-public at 10 and Street Photography Now, published by Thames & Hudson.
Vauxhall Motors
With an ongoing commitment to championing style and design in the UK, British car marque Vauxhall is a keen supporter of creativity through initiatives such as the Vauxhall Art Car Boot Fair 2010, the Vauxhall Fashion Scout and the Vauxhall Collective.
Latest models include Insignia, the 2009 European Car of the Year and New Astra, a car that shares the same design language as Insignia and that has been built in Ellesmere Port, Liverpool.
Vauxhall is reinventing the car as we know it with Ampera, Vauxhall's first electric car. The wheels are turned electronically at all times and speeds and can be plugged into any household 240v outlet for charging.
Vauxhall Collective
The Vauxhall Collective is one of the most ambitious commercially-funded creative support schemes in the UK.
Members of the Vauxhall Collective are supported financially to carry out projects, consequently raising their profile in the industry and in the media, and giving them the resources to fulfil their creative potential.
In previous years Vauxhall successfully ran the VX Collective based on collaboration between members. Previous members have included Giles Deacon and Christopher Kane.
Vauxhall Collective 2008:
Jonathan Kelsey, Simon Hasan, Ben Rivers, Gayle Chong Kwan, Matthew Darbyshire and Gideon Reeling
Vauxhall Collective 2009:
Katie Paterson, Duncan Speakman, Seba Kurtis and Studio Glithero
Website: www.vauxhallcollective.co.uk
