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Almost Conceptual is the first in a series of creative responses to materials from the Matt’s Gallery Archive. After being given unlimited access to the gallery’s vast archive, the writer Naomi Pearce follows a trail of correspondence back to the 1970s; a box of postcards is discovered, and a former office secretary receives a phone call…

Combining interviews with site writing and fabulation, this aural investigation wills archival objects into action through voice and sound, while tracing the silences, withdrawals, and feelings of ambivalence this reanimation provokes.

Part prequel, part post-mortem, Pearce asks questions about the roles we play in work and life, about who gets to take up space in history, and why it is some people want to disappear?

Almost Conceptual takes its title from a rubber stamp made by Robin Klassnik and found by Pearce on her visit to the archive. The project manifests as an audio essay and series of images presented online, alongside postcards from the series OUT OF SITE (1972 – 1976) by Klassnik sent to Helen Kalkhoven Dickson, which served as Pearce’s focal point available to view at Matt’s Gallery from 29 June–17 July 2022, and then by appointment.

Helen Kalkhoven Dickson lives in London. She was employed at SPACE Studios as Company Secretary and Administrator from 1971 - 1974. Over the course of her career she worked as an Arts Manager for organisations including the London School of Contemporary Dance, Extemporary Dance Company, the Almeida Theatre, and Union Dance Company.

A launch event took place on Wednesday 6 July, 18:30-20:30, details can be found here. The project launched alongside the release of Unbidden Tongues #7: Continuity Girl, written by Pearce and published by Kunstverein München.