Imaginary Order
A Collaboration Exploring Waste, Value and Abjection in Relation to Materiality and Aesthetics.
Saturday 21 March 2026, 2pm - 3.30pm
FREE
Venue: MAKE Southwest
Suitable for: Adults
a Green Maker Initiative event
Imaginary Order # II
Image credit: Rod Gonzalez
Abject Bear, Glitzy Mirror
Image credit: Rod Gonzalez
There was me, there was you, there was my waste and there was your waste…
A Talk by Gayle Matthias, Researcher, Artist and Course Leader for BA (Hons) Crafts at Arts University Plymouth and jewellery artist Rachel Darbourne.
They will present a collaborative case study of experimental practice-led research that uses waste materials alongside crafted objects to produce a range of mixed media sculptures. Matthias and Darbourne will discuss their understanding of waste theories, their shared interest in what society throws away and why, what and how things are classified as waste, and the uncanny corporeal associations within their work in relation to: abjection, dysfunction, internal spaces and margins.
Collaborations are complex and the creation of work, for most practitioners, is a solo and private activity, they will unpack the structure of the joint making process including how joint decisions were achieved resulting in finished work that establishes a creative third identity.
Images from left to right: audit of Rachel Darbourne’s work. 2023, audit of Gayle Matthias’s work. 2023 (both photos by author).
About the speakers
Gayle Matthias
Gayle Matthias is a practising artist, educator and researcher. Having exhibited nationally and internationally, Matthias has artwork in the permanent collections of the V&A, London and the European Museum for Modern Glass, Coburg and Glazenhuis, Lommel amongst others.
She has previously presented and published individual and co-authored papers.
Matthias’s background is in glass and mixed media sculpture, her work presents an auto ethnographic pursuit, she incorporates roadside and scrap yard junk alongside luxurious kiln-formed glass to convey personal narratives building visual analogies between worn and/or defunct vacuum cleaners, ageing anatomy and the domestic realm.
Matthias is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a member of the Royal Society of Sculptors.
Rachel Darbourne
Rachel Darbourne is a practising artist and researcher, she has presented and published co-authored papers.
Her work is exhibited nationally and internationally, and held in significant private collections within the art jewellery field.
Darbourne’s background is in mixed media jewellery, her work explores the emotional hierarchy that exists within object ownership and the values that are ascribed to materials and how creative input can impact and subvert these two value systems.