TOWN ISLAND.
EXHIBITION. 2025

Originally presented at the Grenada Pavilion during the 2024 Venice Biennale, Town Island explores the cultural and historic connections between Carriacou in the Caribbean, which became the sister island of an independent Grenada in 1974, and Huddersfield.
Matheson creates a rich material dialogue exploring the two places and their shared histories through large cotton tapestries dyed with pomegranate, sorrel and turmeric. Big drum soundscapes, woollen-tufted landscapes and installations that incorporate Grenadian nutmeg shells trace the migration of people from Carriacou to Yorkshire.

Born in Huddersfield in 1985, Matheson has a second-generation dual identity. His parents, also Huddersfield-born, are of Carriacou heritage, whilst his grandparents, who were part of the Windrush generation, migrated from Carriacou to Huddersfield in the 1950s. Huddersfield is home to one of the largest Carriacou communities outside the island itself, contributing to the town’s uniquely vibrant multicultural tapestry.
For Matheson, ‘Town Island’ is both the title of this exhibition as well as a wider philosophy that informs his whole artistic practice. Rooted in his Huddersfield and Carriacou heritage, he uses it as a lens through which he understands and expresses his creativity.
Following its debut in Venice, Town Island has arrived in Huddersfield, where this iteration features new work and a curatorial programme focusing on oral histories in Kirklees as part of the Cultures of Climate research festival, at the University of Huddersfield.

Town Island is supported by Yorkshire Contemporary, Creative Minds, South West Yorkshire NHS, presented in collaboration with Huddersfield Art Gallery and the University of Huddersfield and is part of the British Council’s Biennials Connect & Broadening Horizons Grants programme. This project is funded by the UK Government, the British Council and Arts Council England.