matthew matsuoka
Photographs
January 7-30, 2004
Opening Reception: January 7, 5:30-7:30 pm
www.sfmoma.org

Artist's Statement I Acknowledgements
Building A, Fort Mason Center
San Francisco, CA 94123
415.441.4777
Open Tuesday - Saturday, 11:30 am - 5:30 pm
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7. Upper Loft, Richmond Ford Assembly Plan, 2002, Type C photograph, 24" x 24"
6. Ceiling I, Richmond Ford Assembly Plant, 2002, Type C photograph, 24" x 24"
5. Empty Office, Richmond Ford Assembly Plant, 2002, Type C photograph, 44" x 58"
4. Conference Room, Richmond Ford Assembly Plant, 2002, Type C photograph, 44" x 58"
8. Crane Room, Richmond Ford Assembly Plant, 2002, Type C photograph, 24" x 24"
1. Assembly Room, Richmond Ford Assembly Plant, 2002, Type C photograph, 44" x 58"
2. Wall, Richmond Ford Assembly Plant, 2002, Type C photograph, 44" x 58"
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Acknowledgements

Photography is a new artistic medium for me. Although there were many esthetic and technical struggles along the way, I received a tremendous amount of help from those who are not only experts in the medium of photography, but artists in their own right. These individuals in particular helped make my artistic vision a reality.

Thanks to:
David Kong for assistance in photographs:
Conference Room, Richmond Ford Assembly Plant
Assembly Room, Richmond Ford Assembly Plant

Thanks to:
Stephen Austin Welch for expertise in digital color management and assistance in photographs:
Empty Office, Richmond Ford Assembly Plant
Wall, Richmond Ford Assembly Plant
Upper Lobby, Richmond Ford Assembly Plant
Ceiling I, Richmond Ford Assembly Plant

Thanks to:
Mark Liebman and the experts at in Emeryville, CA, for their incredible technical support and the scanning of film and final printing of these photographs.

Matthew Matsuoka
2004
3. Upper Lobby, Richmond Ford Assembly Plant, 2002, Type C photograph, 44" x 58"
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Artistic Statement

The photographs in this exhibit were taken inside the Ford Assembly Plant in Richmond, CA. The plant has been dormant for years following the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989, and went through several failed attempts at redevelopment. I stumbled on this location while looking at source materials for paintings. Although by practice I am a painter, I realized the literal images of the photographs captured many of my pictorial and conceptual interests.

The spaces have obvious painterly attributes such as light, texture, and a history of visual incident that mirrors the layers of mark-making that might take place on a canvas. Here there is a vast meeting point of opposites: materials and their demise, intentions and accidents, human activity and natural process, productivity and stagnation. The balance of these opposites, which is in part created by nature over a long period of time, results in the quiet and pure splendor that is everywhere in this location.

The large scale of the work is meant to heighten the sense of space and timelessness through detail and the simultaneous perception of vacancy. The scale allows the work to take on characteristics of abstraction, making objects and environments defy their literal significance based on the viewer’s perceptions of beauty, time, and meaning.

My main interest in taking these photos was not to communicate my own specific emotional response to the subject, but to consider the attributes that made this location so rich with the possibility of having an esthetic experience.

Matthew Matsuoka
2004
9. Small Office II, Richmond Ford Assembly Plant, 2002, Type C photograph, 24" x 24"
9. Small Office II, Richmond Ford Assembly Plant, 2002, Type C photograph, 44" x 58"
10. Small Office, Richmond Ford Assembly Plant, 2002, Type C photograph, 24" x 24"