Did someone steal the dog?

Stephen Mathewson is an American-born artist, writer and musician who now lives and works in Austria. His exhibition, Miami Deathwish 2, which opened on Thursday at the kunstraum pro arte in Hallein, reflects and transcends his range of interests, his quick humour and love of storytelling. When asked for a quote to sum up the show, he was quick to answer: “I love eating steak”.

The opening involved performance of several forms, including a recorded conversation between Mathewson and David Quigley, and a live performance of number of his songs. The relationship between the music and the visual art is a “greyzone”, never clearly defined or definable, but ever present. Matthewson can, however, explain how the creative process of the two forms overlaps: it is easy to “flood” your mind with too much painting, and music provides an outlet; but also while writing or playing songs he finds he often turns to the paintings and views them differently.

The exhibition is part of an ongoing story, which essentially revolves around dog-napping. In the end, the dog rescues himself, rendering the effort of the owners futile. It is also to be a record project at some point in the future, showing once more how the two relate. It was, he admits, really hard to do: but then, as many have said, anything worthwhile is hard to do - even if its just looking for the dog.