Matthew

Matthew

@silver.matthew

“The truth is, New York burnt me out. I did my thing, thinking I could take over the world and inspire the planet. The idea was mythological. I was performing, and farting in people’s faces, and making them smile. Everybody here in New York is fighting, they’re playing the rat race and everyone is trying to win. I realized I was part of that race myself. Well, you’ve heard the expression, ‘You win the rat race, but you’re still a rat.’”

“New York was a frightening place for me when I was a kid. I was shy and scared. My parents would take me to see Broadway shows and Shakespeare in the Park. I never thought about being a performance artist; I just wanted to make people laugh. It wasn’t until I saw Robin Williams in The Fisher King that I got inspired to do acts in public.”

“One time in high school, I was with a group of friends and one kid said, ‘I’ll give you money if you do something stupid in front of the girls.’ So I did, and everybody cheered me on. That was a big moment, and the first time I thought ‘I can do this regularly.’”

“I have been a performance artist in New York for the last 15 years. The last few years, my performances have been focused a lot around farting. My intention was clear: to make the whole world laugh as an act of peace. You can get confused with all these people around saying ‘That’s stupid. What are you doing?’”

“I compare love to farts because you fart and you feel embarrassed. It’s almost the same thing as sharing your love liberally. You give a little love to somebody and they might reject you. It’s vulnerable. We should be loving love. It’s natural just like farts, and letting it go or letting it out there should be embraced more.”

“A lot of people misjudge me, but there is a point in that. It’s by them misjudging me that they can get a true realization of my intentions. I’ve heard people say years after they saw me ‘Oh. Now I get what he was about.’ That’s the beauty of art. Sometimes when there’s cruel judgement, it hurts, though.”

“I’m inspired by this guy, Prince Ea. He’s a poet and rapper. He made these videos that inspire love, connection, and seeing everybody as ‘one’. He believes that the way to reach unity is to not see black people as black and white people as white, but see beyond physical appearance. That’s one good thing about New York. You’re surrounded by so many different people that you accept everybody. There is racism, but not as much as there would be if you went into the countryside.”

“I’m just a guy who’s doing his best for his existence on the planet. I read somewhere that our purpose is to inject love into the world in order to heal it. I’m trying to align myself with this new consciousness because this world is built on some really bad things like slavery, war, and nasty governments. My interpretation of love is smile, make people laugh, inject joy to the world, heal it, give hugs and kisses.”

“I love that New York City is where I was able to explore myself and expand my mind. There’s so many people with a creative mind here that once you come here with an idea, it will evolve. It still is a unique playground for new ideas. I had so much freedom to perform out in the parks and on the streets, but was here for too long. I’ll come back. Maybe I need 10 years out of here, but I’ll be back.”

“This whole culture of snapping photos endlessly changed the connection I had with people. People didn’t even care whether or not I was in character. They just wanted a picture so they could move on. I was just a product to them. They didn’t want to be inspired by what I was trying to communicate.”

“You lose yourself to the idea of being a product here, and then you’re not really having a real conversation with anyone anymore. Everything is about ‘How can this benefit me?’ There’s still hope though. We can change it. There are still genuine people here.”