Matt Kay

Maiden Flight

‘Maiden Flight’ is a work in progress, evolving and still being shaped. The series is a visual exploration of the KwaZulu-Natal midlands in South Africa, the area where Matt Kay grew up in. Focused on the artist’s relationship with a beekeeper, the work presents enigmatic outdoor sceneries where the languages of documentary and fiction overlap. As Kay explains, the series ponders his ties and feelings about the landscape. The figure of the beekeeper stands as an intermediary, allowing Kay’s connection with the people and the place to be told through the fleeting points of intersection in their lives.

About Matt Kay

Matt Kay (b. 1985) is a Durban-based South African photographer whose work challenges perceptions of the mundane and normality. In 2014, he received the Tierney Fellowship and was mentored by David Goldblatt at The Market Photo Workshop. That same year, Kay was awarded the Ithuba Arts Fund and exhibited his work in the Joburg Photo Umbrella and the exhibition ‘Photography and National Trauma in South Africa’ at GUS Gallery in Stellenbosch. His series ‘The Front’ was displayed at The Photo Workshop Gallery in Johannesburg and at KZNSA in Durban in 2015. Kay was featured by the British Journal of Photography as one of 25 ‘Ones to Watch’ in their global survey of emerging photographers. His series ‘Losing Ground’ and ‘Synapse’ were shown respectively at the 20th Biel/Bienne Festival of Photography in Switzerland and the 12th Printemps Photographique Festival in Nîmes, France. More recently, his work was included in ‘Of Traps and Tropes,’ an exhibition curated by John Fleetwood as part of the Tunisian International Photography Festival.