Matilda Sutton’s practice looks to disrupt binary ideas of what a Human is and how it feels to be one. Working across painting, drawing, sculpture and textile, Sutton draws from histories, anthropology, philosophies, fiction and folklore, interwoven with memory and experience. Through experimental making, she constructs uncertain narratives in image and object. The hairy, fleshy bodies of humans, non-humans and hybrid creatures appear in paintings and drawings on constructed papers and plaster ‘tablets’, or grow into beings formed of cloth, found matter, plaster and clay.

Coalescence means to join or merge elements; here, Sutton brings together new sculptural works and drawings, older paintings and objects from her practice. During Sutton’s residency at Durham Sixth Form Centre, she has explored notions of selfhood, relationality, embodiment and consciousness. Alongside material experimentation with students, Sutton’s residency and exhibition have led her to consider elements of her work which, at times, function as separate, and how these objects and practices relate and intertwine.

This exhibition serves as a reflective exploration for Sutton, examining the interconnected relationships between materials, participatory collaborations with students and studio practice. Through these interwoven processes and relationships meaning emerges.