Matt de Moiser and Noella Lopez on Re-Stitched Series

Re-Stitched Series Reviewed by Noella Lopez

Driven by using and experiencing unusual materials and taking them out of context, as much as by recycling and reinventing our imagination, stories and past perceptions, de Moiser creates with his evolving practice an intriguing, humorous and versatile journey. Stitching turned on its head! Following Matt’s concept and thinking of recycling objects and existing imagery and reinventing them, he ferreted traditional stitched embroideries which represented typical English ‘Midsommer Murders’ like inspired countryside landscapes. De Moiser then un-stitched them and re-stitched them in long stitches representing this time contemporary Australian architecture, juxtaposing two different views of home and contrasting what we set out to idealise. By using stitching, a traditional female craft activity, he transcends with humour the long stitches to an art forum and inspire suburban life to a new aesthetic view. And yes he enjoyed stitching immensely!

Noella Lopez 2015

Re-Stitched Series by Matt de Moiser

Long stitch embroidery was very popular in the 1980's. My Mum, Grandma and Aunty were into it in a big way and so were all my friends' mums too. You can still visit people's houses today and see long stitch embroideries hanging on the walls – almost all of them depicting quaint cottages and whimsical homesteads in lush gardens and idyllic semi-rural settings.

To me, this unique form of embroidery is a fascinating social record; an important historical document of our ideas and ideals of home (and by extension ourselves according Jungian psychology).

Using long stitch embroideries found at op-shops and donated by friends and family, I unpick the original storybook cottages and homesteads and replace them with alternative archetypes of home that challenge traditional notions of home and who we are. For example, the very popular long stitch embroidery of Cook's cottage was carefully unpicked and re-stitched with the Rose Seidler House in its place. And an old country homestead with smoke wafting from the chimney was unpicked and replaced with the Farnsworth House. In this way, the Re-Stitched embroidery series can be understood as redevelopments or renovations of our desires, aspirations and dreams.

Matt de Moiser 2015

Composites Series Reviewed by Noella Lopez

Driven by using and experiencing unusual materials and taking them out of context, as much as by recycling and reinventing our imagination, stories and past perceptions, de Moiser creates with his evolving practice an intriguing, humorous and versatile journey. With this series, Matt is using the recycling of other artists’ artworks and their assembling to give us a different view of the artist’s art and of the landscape. De Moiser is making fun and challenges the concept of art ownership, the messages art conveys and how they are interpreted. These experimental and unique artworks are little gems to enjoy.

Noella Lopez 2015

Composite Series by Matt de Moiser

The Composite series are assemblages made from other artists' paintings. They challenge the sanctity that art enjoys, but paradoxically is also constrained by. I had the idea for the work after Adam Cullen shot a hole through my first laminate painting which he purchased at Art Sydney a few years back. At first I was offended, but then I started thinking about it as an act of transformation, rebirth even. Inspired by open source software engineering, sampling and the scientific method, the Composite series builds on the work of other artists to generate new ways of seeing.

Matt de Moiser 2015