Name: WHAT IN THE WIDE WORLD? Presented by Lawrence Matthews
Start: 2025-09-13T18:00:00-05:00
Location: Pink Palace Museum and Planetarium

WHAT IN THE WIDE WORLD? Presented by Lawrence Matthews

On Saturday, September 13th at 6pm join multi-hyphenate artist Lawrence Matthews at MoSH for a special all immersive experience as he presents “What in the Wide World?”. An audio and visual installation exploring various dynamics of black life in Southern America soundtracked by his long awaited new album “Between Mortal Reach & Posthumous Grip”.
Tickets: https://mpv.tickets.com/?agency=PIPV_PL_MPV&orgid=55289&pid=9573051#/event/9573051/ticketlist/
“The Life of Lawrence Matthews takes place in the inbetweens. Born and raised in a lower middle class neighborhood fixed between the Mississippi border, the Memphis City Limits and the well off suburban Germantown and Collierville; his life was lived in places, ignored, forgotten and in the liminal interiors of southern family homes and spaces. Matthews’ life and work exist as an extension of the southern gothic voices with whom he is aligned. He emerges as somewhat of a Morrisonian beloved ghost, a child who needed more. Now, fully grown as a manifestation of his environment’s love and bitterness intertwined.
With a BFA from The University of Memphis and a decade long career working with various arts nonprofits, his work in nearly every area of the arts is an amalgamation of his whole life. As a young artist he’d create with the rap, soul and alternative rock references he’d come in contact with. Visually inspired by the regionalistic mythology of Paul Thomas Anderson and early Spike Lee; Matthews' own visuals weave African spirituality with the Christian mythology that permeates the region, highlighting the deep relationship between the often maligned spiritual connections Black people have explored for generations, creating a hauntingly familiar but surreal viewing experience.Introduced to new sounds by way of underground mixtapes and 2000s video countdowns, these sonics blended with the eccentricities of acts like Outkast and grittier more reality-driven music from the south creating a diverse palate that Matthews pulls from when crafting the imagery that populates his own art.
On his debut album Between Mortal Reach & Posthumous Grip, Matthews introduces himself focusing on the overlaps of his experiences with twisted confessions and deep longings. Anchored by sample-heavy production and clever wordplay, Between Mortal Reach & Posthumous Grip finds Matthews moving forward with bravado, quiet tenderness, seething anger, and a wistful melancholy, all while providing thoughtful discourse on art, mythology, blackness, and sexuality from the heart of the bible belt.”