A Bridge Too Far

Matt

Artist Matt shares his obsession with bridges and high buildings.

Further Info

This story was made at a workshop for artists in the art+power (www.artandpower.com) artists’ group at Spike Island, with support from Bristol’s Museums, Galleries & Archives.

Transcript

When I was younger my gran used to go shopping once a week to Bristol. I didn’t like shopping too much so she decided one day to take me to see the suspension bridge.

It really started there; I’ve collected loads of postcards of the bridge, so that’s what I occupied myself with when she went shopping.

Bridges have always pushed the boundaries of engineering. The public haven’t always been convinced that these bridges can be built and I feel the engineers have proved a large group of the public wrong.

That’s sort of the way I’ve gone on with my life really – not be too influenced by public opinion.

When I was younger I had bad epilepsy and the seizures were bought on by stress , and throughout my life it’s been this game of ‘how far do you push yourself without pushing it too far to give yourself a seizure?’

I’ve seen the major bridges in Britain: the Humber Bridge, the Forth Bridges. I’ve also been to San Fransisco and seen the Golden Gate Bridge and Bay Bridge and also the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, and the most recent bridge, yeah Denmark.

Doing a work camp – three week work camp in Britain, people from different countries were on the same work camp and it occurred to me that I could perhaps do the same and go to other countries.

I found that I could go to America and see these buildings and bridges that I’d seen in magazines. That was on the south side of the Golden Gate Bridge, just cutting hedges; basically jobs that needed to be done.

Anna Oliver, interviewer: And looking at the bridge all day?

Yeah! [laughs]

The cathedrals: probably the start of the skyscraper obsessions really, starting really with Wells Cathedral because that was local, then from there it sort of progressed to Salisbury Cathedral, then I went to London and obviously saw St Paul’s Cathedral, so again it was cathedrals on a bigger and grander scale.

And the towers yeah really. After going to London and seeing the Telecom Tower it was, again, the beginning of the skyscraper…

Really it started from a young age, doing sort of pencil drawings and just messing about wth lines and fitting these bridges at these different angles, and that’s what I’ve really been doing for these last two years, sort of concentrating on this graffiti.

I’ve got the new Severn Bridge – the second Severn crossing – I’ve got the Peros bridge, I’ve got the Forth bridge. Yeah, I’m pretty pleased with the effect really.

This is the Golden Gate Bridge: I’ve done it coming through the sail of the Matthew under the (Clifton) Suspension Bridge.

I would very much like to see suspension bridge in Japan that crosses the Akashi strait, and I would very much like to see the new bridge in France just outside Tolouse.

Credits

All media not otherwise credited created by the story author, or permission obtained, used under copyright licence.

Eiffel Tower photo created by Paul Fenton, flickr.com, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Telecom Tower created by Ruhel Ali, flickr.com, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Viaduc de Millan created by Peter Welland, flickr.com, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Akashi Kaikyou bridge created by Bubbl Gum, flcikr.com, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Golden Gate Bridge photo created by Paul Fenton, flickr.com, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

St Pauls Cathedral photo created by ArminFlickr, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.