Matthew Bamber: Dream Home at HOME

Maja Lorkowska, Exhibitions Editor
Matthew Bamber, Dream Home (Sleep), 2023
Matthew Bamber, Dream Home (Sleep), 2023

Matthew Bamber: Dream Home at HOME Manchester, Manchester 28 March — 1 September 2024 Entrance is free — Visit now

Matthew Bamber is the current guest in HOME’s Granada Foundation Galleries with his show Dream Home, a multilayered exploration of queerness, domesticity and power.

Bamber works predominantly in photography and collage, creating new digital imagery from existing visuals and thus making a comment on the oversaturation of images in today’s world. 

It could be said that collage is often an overlooked medium currently going through something of a renaissance, at the very least in terms of its representation. A lot more widely used than we may think, it accompanies painters, sculptors, filmmakers and many other artists along the creative process. Bamber, on the other hand, uses it as his leading visual language, creating brand new complex images from recognisable elements. The artist himself describes them as “deconstructed, overloaded compositions” created from blends of imagery “that are broken down and built back up”, so the process appears as important as the final result. The images are difficult to categorise, ranging from minimalist and monochrome to intricate patterns with repetition of motifs and colours that somehow clash in harmony.

Matthew Bamber, Dream Home (wet), 2023
Matthew Bamber, Dream Home (wet), 2023

Dream Home takes a closer look at the idea of ‘queer domesticity’, using Bamber’s home as a starting point and a site of identity construction. The Dream Home series consists of six pieces, each focusing on a different area of the artist’s home, opening up questions about privacy and the works being for public viewing, as well as personal histories and memory.

The GM series is a result of Bamber’s extensive research into queer theories and personal experiences. The resulting work is an attempt to process the overwhelmingly large amounts of information available to consume and understand, all around the LGBTQIA+ community. Here, each artwork relates to a different issue such as ‘outness’, family and surveillance.

The exhibition oscillates between a deep dive into the artist’s mind and the chaos of external ‘stuff’ – objects from the home, information to digest and the constantly changing nature of it all. As the show is quite compact in size, make sure you spend time with each individual piece.

Matthew Bamber: Dream Home at HOME Manchester, Manchester 28 March — 1 September 2024 Entrance is free Visit now

What's on at HOME Manchester

Where to go near Matthew Bamber: Dream Home at HOME

Manchester
Restaurant
Indian Tiffin Room, Manchester

Indian Tiffin Room is a restaurant specialising in Indian street food, with branches in Cheadle and Manchester. This is the information for the Manchester venue.

The Ritz Manchester live music venue
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The Ritz

The Ritz was originally a dance hall, built in 1928, has hosted The Beatles, Frank Sinatra and The Smiths and is still going strong as a gig venue now.

Homeground
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Homeground

Homeground is HOME’s brand new outdoor venue, providing an open-air space for theatre, food, film, music, comedy and more.

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Small but perfectly-formed café – which also serves as the in-house bookstore, stocking all manner of Burgess-related works, along with recordings of his music. It’s a welcoming space, with huge glass windows making for a bright, welcoming atmosphere.

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Rain Bar

This huge three-floor pub, formerly a Victorian warehouse, then an umbrella factory (hence the name), has one of the city centre’s largest beer gardens. The two-tier terrace overlooks the Rochdale canal and what used to be the back of the Hacienda, providing an unusual, historic view of the city.

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The Briton’s Protection

Standing on the corner of a junction opposite The Bridgewater Hall, The Briton’s Protection is Manchester’s oldest pub. It has occupied the same spot since 1795, going under the equally patriotic name The Ancient Britain.

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Castlefield Gallery

The influential Castlefield Gallery sits at the edge of Manchester’s exciting Castlefield district, an ideal home for thought-provoking contemporary art.

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