Gasworks

Matthew Darbyshire (b. 1977, lives in London) lives in a bubble of deep turquoises, fuchsia pinks and acid yellows - he sees these colours everywhere and so, he points out, do you. Darbyshire is interested in the non-specificity of today's design language: the fact that bright CMYK dots are the logo for an estate agent and a cinema, as well as a NHS walk-in centre; that Arne Jacobsen egg chairs can be found in London's Zetter boutique hotel as well as in recently re-branded McDonald's restaurants.

For Blades House, Darbyshire’s first solo show in a public UK institution, the artist took as a departure the domestic interior of a fictitious, urban middle-class professional in his mid-thirties. The character and his choice of furniture, textiles, art and other paraphernalia were used as a vehicle to address issues of taste, style, aspiration, class distinction and demographic blurring.

As well as containing furniture and accessories from interior decoration stores ranging from George at Asda to Fritz Hansen, Darbyshire included his own components as well as those of other artists and designers, thus producing a composition that goes beyond representation, by allowing for gaps, antagonisms and doubts to slip in.