Matthew Burdis makes films that incorporate photography to investigate a moment or memory of a specific location, often focusing on a tangible or performative object as an anchor point.
Matthew Burdis (b. 1993, Newcastle upon Tyne) is an artist filmmaker. In 2019 he screened two films as part of Serpentine Cinema: On Earth, Missing and Memory, at PeckhamPlex cinema, London and as part of Serpentine Cinema & General Ecology: On Earth at the Long Now at Kraftwerk Berlin. His Channel 4, Random Acts film commission was shown at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London and at the Arnolfini, Bristol as part of the Playback Festival. Other group exhibitions and screenings include BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art (Gateshead), Cathy Weis Projects (New York City), Sala Pegasus Cinema (Spoleto), South London Gallery (London), South Kiosk Gallery (London). He studied at Chelsea College of Art and Design, Weißensee Kunsthochschule and The Royal College of Art.
Second
HD Video / 02:15 min / 2016
‘Second’ takes place in the same location that features in the Michelangelo Antonioni film ‘The Passenger’, 1975. In ‘The Passenger’, the character David Locke returns to his London home after assuming the identity of a dead businessman. In the scene in which he returns he has a flashback to a time with his estranged wife in this house – this memory then slips into his wife’s perspective of the same moment. The camera itself, silence and the layering of two specific sounds became the way I approached this location and its relationship with memory.
Made with the support of The Institute of Contemporary Art, London (ICA) and Channel 4 Random Acts.
Lindisfarne One One
HD Video / 04:25 min / 2015
‘Lindisfarne One One’ is a silent black and white, digital film shot on the tidal island of Lindisfarne, Northumberland. The film deals with personal and historical loss, reflecting on first hand memories of the location as well as its representation within cinema, most notably the film ‘Cul-De-Sac’ (1966) whilst drawing on tropes from Wim Wenders’ Road Movie trilogy and Chris Petit’s ‘Radio On’ (1979). The narrative is driven by a stack of analogue photographs, in which a hand removes the images one by one.