Matterlurgy is the artist duo of Helena Hunter and Mark Peter Wright. Their practice incorporates site-responsive installation, sound, video and sculptural works, collaborating across the sciences to examine ways of sensing and translating environmental change. They have produced projects about river health, air pollution, waste, flooding and ocean modelling. Artworks have been made in relation to sites including a hydropower station, disused steelworks, a laboratory for ice simulation, an abandoned copper mine, as well as galleries and museum collections.
Collaborations have involved working with scientists at The University of Cambridge, University College London, King’s College London, National Oceanography Centre UK, University of Sheffield, University of Turku (Finland) and Royal Holloway, University of London.
Matterlurgy’s work has been commissioned, exhibited and screened across venues and partners, including Delfina Foundation, Arts Catalyst, Tate Modern, Raven Row Gallery, Gazelli Art House, Whitechapel Gallery, ICA, John Hansard Gallery, The Showroom Gallery, Watermans, UK Green Film Festival, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, (UK). They have shown their work internationally at Onassis Stegi (Athens), Bòlit Contemporary Arts Centre (Spain), Medialab Matadero (Spain), Mains d’Œuvres (France), ONOMA, HIAP Frontiers of Retreat, Titanik Gallery (Finland), Dalane Kulturfestival, Rogaland Kunstsenter (Norway).
Their work has been featured in: The Guardian, Art Monthly, MAP Magazine, Third Text and Wild Alchemy Journal. Interviews are featured on the Mater Podcast, CAA and MIMA's Hearing from Artists series. Their work has been included in academic publications such as Technoetic Arts by Justyna Stępień (Intellect) and Remain by Ioana B. Jucan, Jussi Parikka and Rebecca Schneider (University of Minnesota Press). Their project Beneath the Signal and Noise is included in the UK Green Guide: Creative Responses to Sustainability, published by Asia-Europe Foundation. Matterlurgy were nominated for the Paul Hamlyn Awards for Artists 2023.
Mater Podcast: Interview
Ways of Water: Recent exhibition
CAA: Interview
Wild Alchemy Journal: Interview
Sensitives Stream: online artwork