Mat Chivers was born in Bristol, UK in 1973 and studied sculpture at The Nottingham Trent University, UK and Escuela de Belles Arte, Barcelona, Spain from 1993-96. An extended period of travel followed, where he trained in sustainable farming and building practices in Europe and North Africa, culminating in a solo journey overland to India where he spent time living in the Himalayas. He returned to the UK in 1999 and established a studio in the south west of England. He lives and works between Devon, UK and Québec, Canada
Chivers work looks at some of the relationships between human and more-than-human consciousness, ecology and evolutionary processes by bringing traditional handmade approaches to making into counterpoint with cutting-edge technologies. Collaborations with researchers in the fields of science, academia and culture are at the core of his practice, brought together by a shared desire to make the connections between the unseen seen
Through his focus on environmental processes and phenomena, other species and the extreme scales of geological and evolutionary time, he looks at the metamorphic impact of emergent technologies on both our own evolution, and as a consequence, on the global ecosystem of which we're a part. The sculpture, drawing, film and performance that results from these dialogues are a personal and instinctive reflection on the entanglement of our own nature with the wider ecologies that constitute life on Earth