2025 - Summer project
Freedom Walking Sticks is a project Matt made when he was invited to take part in TRACES at De Nieuwe Gang in the Netherlands.
Participating artists were asked to consider the concept of freedom 80 years after the end of the second world war.
The artist curator Casper ter Heerdt wrote "From a Dutch perspective, our freedom was fought for 80 years ago; now others elsewhere in the world are fighting for their freedom. Our freedom today is not everyone’s freedom. For a relatively small group war is a political matter. But the war disrupts the private lives of a huge group of people who actually have little to do with the so-called struggle. During the celebration of the 80th anniversary of freedom / 80 years of the end of the war, we can be aware that internationally we are connected by a common past.
TRACES was part of a Euregional art project and initiative of the municipality of Beuningen and art initiative De Nieuwe Gang. It was part of the regional program “80 Years of Freedom – Rijk van Nijmegen”. Both the municipality of Beuningen and the Province of Gelderland supported the project.
Matt's idea was to make walking sticks which would be taken, free from the gallery if visitors wished. Walking with a stick relies on no-one else and where and when you walk is a potentially a free choice.
The sticks were displayed leaning against a wall in a row with a sign that read:
Freedom Walking Sticks
1. Freedom Walking Sticks are free
2. Freedom Walking Sticks may be taken by anyone to anywhere
3. Freedom Walking Sticks can used for ambling, rambling, roaming, hiking, walking and wandering
Freedom Walking Sticks are harvested from an ever widening source of different trees- Ash, Beech, Cob, Hazel, Holly, Hornbeam and Yew.
After TRACES Matt was invited by Clare Palmier, Director of The Art Station to continue this project for an exhibition in the UK called LAND @ The Art Station in Saxmundham, Suffolk during July& August 2025
For LAND the sticks were nearly all coppiced from hazel trees in the beautiful Art Station garden or along the banks of the nearby river Fromus. These photos show the huge Copper Beech under which Matt worked converting the branches into walking sticks. AS with TRACES each stick hasda green number disk and hand strap whilst some had patterns cut in the bark & a few were painted or stained.
